I have a friend with two children.
The older is a girl, very smart and academically inclined.
The second, a boy, street smart, but getting mediocre grades and doesn’t like school ( couldn’t wait to finish high school and get outta there ).
My friend keeps telling me how his son should be more like his daughter.
The daughter got some aid and went to Barnard College ( the women’s division of Columbia University ). even with aid, she still had to shell out nearly $30,000 in yearly tuition plus board.
The son, after graduation, went to technical school to learn to be a mechanic ( he LOOOVES tinkering with cars ).
After graduation, the daughter ( who majored in Communication arts ) couldn’t find a job she liked and went to Japan teaching English (a one year contract). She finished her contract and came back to the USA in 2012. Six months later, she’s still looking for something she likes to do.
The son, after graduation, apprenticed with Autozone specializing in auto transmissions but also learned to be a full service mechanic.
He now works for an auto shop and makes about $42,000 a year.
So, who made out better so far?
Not knocking the young lady with the Bachelor’s Degree, but in the Obama economy, that doesn’t help you much.
That’s all very true, but it also says something about the opportunities afforded men vs women, as well as the work men will take vs. the work women will take.
My husband and I run a small manufacturing plant with a predominately female work force. One day an applicant came in to apply for an entry level job. She was unbelievable. She had a very spotty and diverse background and had most recently been employed as a “choir director” but her background included “motorcycle mechanic”.
I thought she was interesting and worthy of an interview with my husband. He dismissed her politely after about an hour and later took me aside and scolded me for sending him a “transvestite”. “Didn’t you look at “his” hands and forearms?” asked my husband.
Apparently, as my husband was showing him/her around the shop and discussing the various opportunities for being a machine operator, this applicant (in ladies’ clothes) suddenly fell to the floor and scooted under a machine on his/her back to check out its hidden workings.