Jobs and gender (was: Gender, Race, and Publishing on the Left)

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

At 08:53 PM 6/17/98 -0400, maggie coleman  wrote:
>Sexual harrassment is the primary method used to drive women out of blue
>collar union jobs.  Break rooms full of pictures of things like women fucking
>animals or having their tits cut off, physical contact of an intimidating
>nature, etc.  Sexual harrassment is used within female work places to divy up
>extras like overtime, flex hours, etc.  You do me, and I treat you better.
>Tell you what Wojtek, why don't you read some of the accounts out there of
>life in the blue collar world first.
>
>Sexual harrassment has two legal definitions:
>
>1.  Sexual demands which are unwanted by the recipient.
>2.  The creation of a sexually demeaning atmosphere.

I am not disputing these facts.  All I am saying is that driving out women
out of blue collar jobs is not about sex but about work.  Some of the
methods used to that end may fit defintion 2 above, if directed at females,
but how about intimidation directed at males to accomplish the same end?  

I think what explains this particular kind of blue collar behaviour is not
'sexism' supposedly inherent in the working class, but job insecurity, or
rather lacks of access to formal-institutional channels of controlling the
workplace.  I bet you that if the unions had a genuine say in defining
importants aspects of work (qualifications, schedules, pay, workload, etc.)
the incidence of these supposedly 'sexist' incidents would decrease  quite
noticeably.

Regards,

Wojtek