toad215

If I were a man, would you be so rude? And transfer so much aggression?

I simply asked JamesH to show me some data to support his claim that there are a very large number of females at the high levels of public service.

Is it a problem to you that I request some evidence? Or is it that I don't happen to be a male and people like me - in your view - are not expected to have a brain?

SJF,

You could’ve saved others the drama and yourself the head trauma by a more strategically positioned chunder bucket right under that ironing board. Your oppressive husband could have then enjoyed his male privilege (and computer) in peace.

He could have been even complimented for his optimism by his equally testosterone intoxicated buddies, for having so many shirts ready, when in fact all know that any woman within a cooey could have done his job just as well, at half the price.

Now Spikey,

I had noticed that in the government reports that I occasionally browse through more and more female names were appearing with titles like excutive director or deputy.

My sister in law (I could give you her number)reports that in her section/department more and more women are in the excutive level. She is at excut level herself.

Now I had also noticed that female public servants were appearing more and more in the news, when there were stories about government reports etc, there seems to be an increase in the number of females in commissionor roles as well.

Previous female colleagues are now earning salaries that I can only dream of.

Now without much effort here is the data

"The major change in the SES over the last 15 years has been the steady increase in the representation of women, from 16.9% at June 1994 to 37.0% at June 2008" APS statistical bulletin 2007-08

I would surmise from the trend that in another 5-10 years women will either be 50-50 or significantly out number men at the SES level

Dr JamesH,

They are indeed impressive figures included in your post addressed to Spikey.

You talk about what will be the situation in 5 to 10 years time and suggest the PS SES at State and Federal levels, will be swamped with women like in the teaching profession now?

What are your thoughts on the chances of the rather quaint expression “affirmative action” being written out of the English language and history books about then?

SJF, it would appear that something contagious is going around.

"MIT biology professor Nancy Hopkins, who, hearing Summers, "felt I was going to be sick. My heart was pounding and my breath was shallow." And, "I just couldn't breathe because this kind of bias makes me physically ill." She said that if she had not bolted from the room, "I would've either blacked out or thrown up."

I reccommend taking some Prochlorperazine as an effective anti nausea agent. It belongs to a group of drugs known as phenothiazines.

I hope your delicate disposition does not stop you from giving me a hard time.

Houllebecq,

Now that this thread has inevitably descended into the interminable “mine’s better than yours” gender quarrel much beloved on OLO, I wasn’t going to bother joining the dots between my life experience and women’s history.

But the last two posts can be used as illustration.

Before researching history to include women I would have read that women’s inclusion in one particular working sector stood at “37.0% at June 2008" and probably considered that real progress –happily prepared to ignore lower figures in other sectors in the hope that they too, in time, would increase.

But rather than positioning that as a result of the feminist movement from the 1960’s, or even from the late 1860’s, when one contextualizes this as a result of a struggle that has been ongoing for over 400 years one’s views change.

Read, for example the Women’s Petition to Parliament of 1649: which commences:We have “an interest in Christ equal unto men, as also of a proportional share in the freedoms of this Commonwealth” yet “ appear so despicable in your eyes, as to be thought unworthy to petition or represent our grievance to this honourable House.”

It goes say “Have we not an equal interest with the men of this Nation, in those liberties and securities contained in the Petition of Right, and the other good laws of the land?...And can you imagine us to be so…stupid, as not to perceive..[when our Rights]..peace and welfare are broken down and trod under foot by force and arbitrary power?”

Or consider that as far back as1640 Marie de Gournay claimed intellectual equality for men and women and made the radical assertion that sex was a physical distinction which did not affect the mind.

Read Lanyer’s Salve Deus Rex Judaerum published in 1611 which disputes why “We poor women [are} blamed or, by…men so much defamed?”

Then perhaps you’ll start to understand what I meant. Women haven’t suddenly changed: we’ve been fighting the same fight for centuries.

Puts our progress in a different perspective.

Workplaces are going to be "swamped by women" in 5-10 years?

Yeah, right.