Feminism

Are spellcheckers MALE - discuss.

Gracesmum my favourite all time spell check suggestion (have I posted this before on GN? I might have at some point in the last 2 years but you want to hear it again? Oh alright then.)
I had mis-typed the word relate. With a double L.
Spellchecker suggested I really meant it to retain the double L but start word with an F. Much office hilarity. But could have been horribly embarrassing if automatic correction had gone out.

It is interesting that on the @everydaysexism site on Twitter many young women are mentioning unwanted attention in the street or in pubs. There are still some encountering sexism in the workplace though just like the 70s e.g. being told to wear something sexy to impress a client in work etc
I think women are better protected under the law these days but far from equal - you only have to look at pay differentials. They are under huge pressure to be perfect in all kinds of ways.
I did notice that we have a few female refuse collectors recently - but there are still many jobs that are overwhelmingly male.

When I started work as a designer in 1967 my boss suggested I should be employed as a draughtsman as, being male, they got paid quite a bit more. I therefore became a draughtsman until I left to have a baby.

In the late 60s I remember seeing an organisation chart for my department which showed me as senior to my male colleague who, I had just discovered, was earning more than me. When I asked my manager about this he looked at me blankly and said 'But he is a man!' Needless to say within months I had found myself a new job and moved on.

Mind you in the 1990s I picked up the phone of a male member of my staff to be asked 'are you X's secretary?'. I replied,' no, I am his manager' and enjoyed the embarrassment and confusion at the other end of the phone

Oh keyboards/predictive texting!!!
I shouldn't laugh but you have to when iam64 says in her post
yesterday
"Thanks for this link Greatnan - I've shared it on my face pack page"

The question is- is predictive texting set by MEN and therefore sexist?
(Or maybe you do have a face pack page in which case I apologise and decide I had better revise my beauty regime)

I am sure not even Frank can compare the treatment of women in some cultures with his problems with mixed classes.
When I was being interviewed for a very senior post in education, by the usual butcher, baker and candlestick maker of the local Tory council, one of them asked me if I intended to have any more children. I offered to show him the scar. The Deputy Director for special education gave him both barrels. This was 1974.

Nonu - I thought 'Jill' was more appropriate in the circumstances.

I agree with your stance on the exercise class, Frank, but you have to admit that men don't have quite the same bums and tums issues as women do. Perhaps a change of club/class name is in order?

Following my interview by a panel of 12, and subsequent offer of my first post as a qualified social worker, I was called in to talk things through with the then assistant director. I expected him to ask him about the child care arrangements for my daughter, who was then aged 8. Instead, he asked me who was the guilty party in my divorce, which was then ongoing. I was stunned, and asked him what that had to do with me being offered a job. He seemed surprise to be questioned, and told me it was to ensure the department only employed "stable" people. I still go the job, and colleagues were shocked he'd asked me this, especially as he'd only recently been arrested for shop lifting.
Joan - agreed, we kept fighting for progress and though sometimes I feel we haven't made enough difference, this thread shows what positive changes there have been in society.
Frank - go a walk or something

Comparatively speaking, Bums and Tums is pretty small potatoes.

Greatnan

If you want equal treatment for women it has got to be expected that men will get equal treatment to women i.e. no complaints if they want to go in to Bums and Tums classes.
I would say 99% of the women do not complain.
When they has ladies classes a lot were attending mixed classes as well.

Frank

Modern feminists should check out Pink Stinks.

I left university before the equal pay act was passed in the UK and somewhere I still have a letter rejecting my job application for a sub-editor's job on the grounds that I was a woman.

Even today I don't balk at negotiating my wage. I work freelance...I negotiate my pay for every job. Don't be afraid to get paid what you are worth. To quote Loreal 'you're worth it' !.......if you can do a good job.

My DH and I were buying something together on HP in the late 60s. I was a civil servant, he was a submariner. The salesman was filling out the form and automatically put 'housewife ' against my name without asking. DH saw it, and told the bloke he had better erase that or risk death! He told the salesman we were equal partners and neither one of us was married to the house! I think that old salesman was shocked into entering the modern world that day.

Another time we were looking to buy a house and the bank manager only wanted to take DH's wage into consideration as I might have a baby. I told him I would not have any babies until I was financially ready, and I was on the pill. He blushed bright red in shock at 'the pill' being mentioned in mixed company, and dismissed our application. (we got a mortgage at a different bank)

Times were bad for feminism back then, but I never gave in. I get mad when young ones take all the rights we fought for as if they just happened. It is like wage rises and better work conditions - we fought for everything through the unions, but people think these conditions arose out of the goodness of employers' hearts, and go along with the media and right wing -driven demonisation of trade unions.

Bah humbug!!!

Or even Jack !!

Nonu - are you aware of the terrible conditions of women in some parts of the world? And there is still some covert discrimination against women in the UK so we must resist the temptation to be smug or to say 'I'm all right, Jill'

it wasn't just women though, I remember my boyfriend (now husband) having to get his father to sign a credit agreement to buy a suit from John Collier in 1970. He was over 21 so I don't know what age they considered you to be a responsible adult. (Considering the amount of debt our son managed to run up in his early 20's it's a shame they ever stopped wanting guarantors.)

I remember my brave mum trying to (pay for a funeral..my dad) sort the mortgage, buy tv all that stuff when I was a kid, four of us ...she was a strong woman and taught me well!! I don't think she ever took a No as an answer....

Thank goodness for the Sex Discrimination Act. No wonder we became feminists, with experiences of blatant sexism and being patronised and dismissed. Our daughters don't have the obstacles to face that we did, but there's still a long way to go.

LIKe it or not that was the 70"s.

She found it humiliating to ask and even worse.... Darned predictive text!!

In the early 70s my mum was divorced, had a job, but still needed her FATHER'S signature on an HP agreement! He found it humiliating to ask and even rose when the devil said he wouldn't sign.

Greatnan I had a similar problem when buying a gas cooker - and I wasn't eve looking for higher purchase. I pointed out rather icily that I wasn't married so waiting for my husband's signature would cause a considerable delay. I wanted to pay 75% up front and the remainder on delivery, a good choice as it turned out because of missing oven linings.

The same happened to me, Greatnan. I wanted to buy a sewing machine on HP in 1973 and was sent away from the shop with a form for my husband to sign. Angry? I was livid! I got one from a catalogue instead.