🚀 go-pugleaf

Snip! as erveryone must by now be aware of its basic contents.

What a discussion! Sure shows there are some strange people out there.

1) Equal opportunity laws were passed because there was blatant and
overt discrimination in the workplace, both racial and sexual.
Although most employers are not stupid and will put a smart person in
a job where they can use their abilities, they are not noted for
philanthropy and don't pay out unless they have to. Up until recently,
(say about thirty to forty years or so) most jobs were simply not open
to women. If a woman wanted to work, the only jobs she could do were
either as a subordinate to a man, eg secretary, simple repetitive jobs
such as factory work, or those jobs that women traditionally occupied,
such as teaching, nursing, etc. It took a lot of effort by a few
determined women to break down the barriers which stood in their path
to equal employment opportunities. Sadly, these barriers are
continually being rebuilt by 'gentlemen' such as the original poster.

2) There's still a long way to go - it's still rare for women to get
to the top of the tree, although, happily, things are getting better.
But what can you expect when those with the power to appoint are
prejudiced bigots? Witness the fuss we've just had here about women
priests. Never did see why not.

3) Of course, there are cases in which a bad or incompetent female is
boss of a competent male. So what? That's the fault of whoever did the
appointing, not either of the ones involved.Because true equalitry is
a novelty, I suppose it's only natural that some, perhaps of lesser of
mediocre talent, will resent working for a woman boss -simply because
she's a woman. They wouldn't resent working for a man, but that's
different! HE must be better, SHE can't be, after all, she's a woman,
isn't she? Way to go yet . . .

3) Where do some get the idea that women, by their nature, think
differently or can't think logically? Same way, I suppose, that white
bigots think that blacks are inferior, as Burt tried to argue many
years ago. His premise was as worthless just as much as his test
results were faked.

4) Try telling any of this 'women are inferior' stuff to Margaret
Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, the current Speaker of our
House of Commons, Anita Roddick - and too many others to mention.

5) I am very glad we don't have the inbuilt 'Jewish' problem you have
in the US. Nor, on the whole, do we have the black problem, either. In
any case, all you need to avoid prejudice is an open mind.