Division of Labor

[frankielee242]

K wrote: 
> Do you think maybe it depends when they asked the female patients.
> Maybe three or four months before they deliver they object in theory
> to having a male nurse but I'm thinking when they arrive at the 
> hospital in labour most of them wouldn't care if the nurse was a
> purple elephant as long as he could deliver the baby.

Actually, one of the account managers in my company just had a baby.
She and the other mothers here all swap stories of their deliveries
and as far as I can tell, none of them have any preferences one way or
the other about nurses-- just the OBs. Half of the all of the women
here won't see a male OB/Gyn and half of them won't see a female
OB/Gyn. I realize the company I work for (an ad agency) is not
representative of society as a whole, but if there's a 50/50 split
here, how did they find enough women of a one opinion to get that poor
nurse fired? Perhaps they were objecting specifically to him?

Going back up the Division of Labor thread-- generalizations about
people's behavior in the work place and where it originates are just
generalizations. I can only speak for my own experiences and thoughts. 

That said, it seems to me that the generalizations made about the
impact someone's sex, race, age, height, creed, etc. has on their
abilities are still very much in use. I've sat in meetings where
managers decided which woman to fire based on bust size. I've sat in
meetings with clients of one race who didn't want specific other races
working on their ads. I've sat in my office with angry, overworked
women who expected manna from heaven and I've sat in my office with
incompetent men who demanded more money. 

On the bright side, there are fewer and fewer people who are willing
to act on their personal beliefs about stereotypes (a number of the
managers I mentioned above were fired). There are more and more people
becoming/growing up aware that these rediculous preconceptions exist
and they work to overcome subscribing to them. We've still got a way
to go, though...

My two cents, nickle and a couple of dimes.
Frankie