Friday, June 1, 2007

non cook women

This post comes after Hala’s post on the cooking classes in Le Royal. I’m not criticising but just giving my point of view in this issue. and I succeeded once in linking a word here with a website .. but I couldn't this time link "Hala's post" to her blog so I only highlited it!
Women keep complaining but they never change. All the work sectors are open for the woman but she’s the one who insist to limit herself in what she call “feminine job” and “feminie category”.
I used to have long talks with girls in the engineering college, of course all of them are architects and very few are in chemical or computer eng. departments and you can imagine why! and I used to ask why haven’t you chosen mechanical or electrical or civil eng ? they all had the same answer: “those are not feminine fields!” , or “ mechanical? Do you want me to work with engines?!” or “ civil? do you think it’s a good idea to be a woman directing workers in construction sites?!” .. some girl shocked me because she was very serious saying “ you know, at the end I’m gonna marry, I can’t select to work in a tough environment”!!.
And as for those who actually selected to study mechanical and industrial engineering I met three of them in one factory I worked in, and during that time I never saw one out the office! There was a team work requiring one female engineer to inspect for finished goods in the warehouses, she refused to go because she finds it inappropriate to be in the warehouse in the middle of workers! Later this girl married and disappeared, the other 2 resigned and found an office work in the city, far from factories!
4 or 5 years ago I was in the 8th circle awaiting a taxi, a female driver stopped by me, when I recognized that she’s a woman I hesitated only for a second just to think if I should sit in the front seat or back seat :) but then I made my decision and rapidly approached my hand to the back door. So she said: ma tetla3 goddam shu khawaja 7adertak?! And she moved away! Since then I have never seen a female taxi driver.
I am just giving this example to show that they start brave but they do not continue. And they lack organization and team working to achieve what they target … women are being elected in the parliament but they forget that they represent other women voices in achieving open society for both gender .. they form female committees to serve female issues but not to get involved in real system of men and women. They publish women magazines and broadcast women channels .. all discuss topics like food and beauty and whatever!
I sometimes enjoy cooking , I don’t claim that it’s a feminine issue as might other people do, and some times watch the girls movie night on channel 2 ( what a silly title) … I even worked in the most feminine industry in the world … I worked in Victoria’s Secret factory ( that was a nice experiment by the way with that huge collection of lingerie :) ) . and I do believe that women must work in all sectors … not specifying themselves narrow domains like teaching, nursing and secretary. But it needs a group work … needs continuation .. and strong welling to fight the residual thoughts about women’s domain. Because the society here can accept the woman as she was accepted in Europe, but the woman needs to pay more effort indeed.

3 comments:

Bliss said...

i agree with you to a certain extent that women do nothing to help their situation.. but there is a bigger picture.. there is what society expects of us i.e. to be mothers and wives at the end of the day, and then a woman who is'nt married feels worthless.. if a woman is succesful in her job and is single they think that maybe she's gay.
Working in a male dominated office if difficult on a woman and is very uncomfortable.. imagine being at a warehouse or factory and you are the only woman among 200 men, it is slightly intimidating, and while you might think it is ok to generalize- things these days are a-changing and i welcome the change where a woman is a succesfull chemical engineer surrounded by many other women chemical engineers. Perhaps if we do not encourage our children from an early age to play with gender specific toys then things might be slightly different? who says barbies are just for girls? :)

ozz said...

oh God! no no bliss .. barbies are JUST for girls believe me .. I am ok with women liberation ...women rights .. non cook women .. but boys playing with barbies .. no way!!

Rambling Hal said...

Hahahaha, tab ya Ozz balash linking my name to my site, at least let me know SOMEHOW that I should check this out! :)

It's refreshing to hear such words from a guy for a change, and I absolutely agree - some of the problem is in women themselves.

Can I take this to mean that you agree with me with regards to the Le Royal cooking classes targeted specifically to women??? :D