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Female Engineers: Too Fit For The Role

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Re: Female Engineers: Too Fit For The Role

#3
Yep. Sounds like shop talk--amazing how things at machine shops, oil rigs, and construction sites can be very similar at times. The women I know that work in any of those fields tend to either ignore it or join in--depending on their mood.

One wonders how things would be different were roles reversed--indeed, what sort of talk was common on factory floors during the world wars?

Re: Female Engineers: Too Fit For The Role

#4
I will probably get shunned to death for asking this, but I must ask.

The described behaviour of men in the article is pretty damn sexist, true. But how is it any different from how men in groups behave towards one another? Just replace all the sexist jokes with gay jokes or sissy jokes or just about any other type of jokes men direct at one another to establish pecking orders within groups.

Reading this, it doesn't feel so much like the terrible sexism it's portrayed as, but more like reading about a clash of cultures. This is how groups of men organise themselves. I understand it's jarring for women and that women do it differently, but still, all I see here are men treating a woman exactly like they treat other men.

By the sound of it, she's actually being accepted into the group. Hazing is always the first step.

Re: Female Engineers: Too Fit For The Role

#5
Kind of puts the "sexism in tech" discussion in perspective. These guys make the Mad Men lot sound respectful.

Here's a simple way they could deal with that - create a new company (or even just a new department within the company), hire only civilised people, fire anyone who proves to be an uncivilised jerk, and slowly grow that department/company to take over the company/industry because it's not full of retards...

Re: Female Engineers: Too Fit For The Role

#6

Yep. Sounds like shop talk--amazing how things at machine shops, oil rigs, and construction sites can be very similar at times. The women I know that work in any of those fields tend to either ignore it or join in--depending on their mood. One wonders how things would be different were roles reversed--indeed, what sort of talk was common on factory floors during the world wars?

I imagine it was pretty bad. I recall my grandma telling me that the talk on the shop floor during the war was... not polite.

Re: Female Engineers: Too Fit For The Role

#7
For non UK readers Fit = "hot"

It might not be immediately clear but the article is talking about Civil Engineering which is a little unreconstructed when compared to IT.

And to progress to Chartered status for civil engineers you must have experience working on site bossing the navvies around.

When I worked for Dar Al Hadnasha (one of the big civil consultacies) we had to send out female engineers to Italy on an exchange as in the middle east it woudl have been impossible for a woman to go on site.

Re: Female Engineers: Too Fit For The Role

#8

Yep. Sounds like shop talk--amazing how things at machine shops, oil rigs, and construction sites can be very similar at times. The women I know that work in any of those fields tend to either ignore it or join in--depending on their mood. One wonders how things would be different were roles reversed--indeed, what sort of talk was common on factory floors during the world wars?

When a man walks into a predominantly female group, the behaviour is exactly the same, just the words are different.

At least in my experience.

Re: Female Engineers: Too Fit For The Role

#9
post #4

I will probably get shunned to death for asking this, but I must ask. The described behaviour of men in the article is pretty damn sexist, true. But how is it any different from how men in groups behave towards one another? Just replace all the sexist jokes with gay jokes or sissy jokes or just about any other type of jokes men direct at one another to establish pecking orders within groups. Reading this, it doesn't…

>But how is it any different than how men in groups behave towards one another?

Men do not typically fear sexual violence from each other.

Not that the men on that site were necessarily going to rape the engineer, but it was certainly orders of magnitude more likely than them raping each other.

For the record I understand your point and you might be right, she may well be being accepted, but I don't think it's really reasonable that she should just feel OK with it.

EDIT: and tbh in an ideal world men wouldn't have to face "hazing" (bullying) either. It's a pretty poor justification for women having to cope with a worse variant.

Re: Female Engineers: Too Fit For The Role

#10

Yep. Sounds like shop talk--amazing how things at machine shops, oil rigs, and construction sites can be very similar at times. The women I know that work in any of those fields tend to either ignore it or join in--depending on their mood. One wonders how things would be different were roles reversed--indeed, what sort of talk was common on factory floors during the world wars?

yes I recall a case in the uk where a young lad was bullied by the mostly female workforce on the shop floor of a factory.
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