The Lure of Opulent Desolation

[reetpleat]

First, I like the work I do and the company I work for. And it's so hard to find good admin help that I've found it easy to find work, a plus since I can't spend six months or a year looking for a job. The pay is good enough for me to make my mortgage payment, save for retirement and enjoy a nice but simple life.

However, there's no career path: I'll never move up, let alone become a partner. My job won't change, except to use new technology. I'm at the bottom of the totem pole. Oh, and a lot of people assume that if you're a secretary, you're a knucklehead. (In fairness, many secretaries are; we've had to let three go in the past few years and there are a few more I'd like to see replaced at other branches.) Unless I make a change, this is what I'll be doing for the next 25 years.

I agree. i never said there was anything wrong with being a secretary. My friend is a legal secretary and she makes more than me with benefits. I know an administrative assistant that makes twice what I do.

And they are valued and respected.

But, it can have limitations, and I was referring to it being limited as in, if you are limited to only that job, you can't get into the higher up positions and big money.

Certainly, there may be women that go from the secretarial pool to management. Especially if they get a degree at night etc. But back in the day, that was it. Your only hope might be to be a supervisor of secretaries or get married to the boss.

 

[Paisley]

But, it can have limitations, and I was referring to it being limited as in, if you are limited to only that job, you can't get into the higher up positions and big money.

That's it exactly. One further thing about being a secretary, bookkeeper, or having another traditional "female job": I think a lot of people don't realize the level of skill needed to do those jobs well. Or that a lot of educated people take those jobs because they can't find work in their field, or found out their field didn't suit them.

 

[John in Covina]

There was a joke about the number of people with Phd's that were driving cabs in NYC.

 

[Red Diabla]

A lil' sumpthin'-sumpthin' for just me:

If it wasn't for the second wave of feminism, I could've gotten a similiar letter like that just because I have ovaries. Meh!

RD

 

[Foofoogal]

Ok, i am sorry but every time this issue comes up someone drags that letter out.
I still do not buy it.

This letter is 1938. I do not know history of Disney but I am wonder if during the WW11 this may of changed. This was way before 2nd. wave of fems.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

There was a joke about the number of people with Phd's that were driving cabs in NYC.

Rather more to do with immigration policies and visa types than traditional restrictions or lack of ability to find work in their fields of expertise, methinks.

The number of people with PhDs i worked with in a fish factory in Aberdeen during the summers in undergraduate would make you weep. They were all women, and all Iranian, and had come to the UK with their husbands who were postdocs or PhD students. Despite their qualifications (PhDs, engineers, MDs, etc. etc.), they could only get crap work because of their visa status.

They should think themselves lucky. It was absolutely 100% illegal for my wife to work for pay when she was in the US with me. And at that time (it may have changed since) it was impossible to change her visa status so that she could work, independent of her many qualifications and skills/abilities.

bk

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Ok, i am sorry but every time this issue comes up someone drags that letter out.
I still do not buy it.

It's an interesting one. Note that it is signed by a woman. Complicity in keeping her sisters down!!!

bk

 

[Senator Jack]

Well, that's Disney for ya. How 'bout Hitchcock whose producer was Joan Harrison? Worked her way up from secretary!

 

[Foofoogal]

If Google wasn't so messed up I could show how in 1943 there was a manual for men and women. I also saw a tidbit of how Disney protected his women workers.

I can sum up a lot about me in this song which is me and honey's song. fftopic:
I make no apologies for the choices I have made in my life as a woman. I treasure and support my honey and he does the same for me. It just sort of makes me mad that for many women this type of choice like I made is not only ridiculed but downright attacked. I don't live just for honey and have my own life and am free to not only do a business but other things. If the couple decided what they want to do is different then it should be their decision and not by some force or pressure from other women. This is true womens freedom IMHO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbkrzJjoC5Y

So if your man makes you feel like this song then maybe you can understand part of my thinking.

 

[LizzieMaine]

To be fair, a number of women, including Lillian Freedman and Edith Vernick, trained as animators at the Fleischer studio in New York, which was probably a more fun place to work than Disney anyway. And there was also LaVerne Harding at the Lantz studio, home of Oswald the Rabbit, the first woman to receive screen credit as an animator.

 

[Paisley]

...It just sort of makes me mad that for many women this type of choice like I made is not only ridiculed but downright attacked. I don't live just for honey and have my own life and am free to not only do a business but other things. If the couple decided what they want to do is different then it should be their decision and not by some force or pressure from other women. This is true womens freedom IMHO.

Agreed--the arrangement a couple decides on is their own business. But a lot of women tend to be catty instead of trying to help each other. I'm sure it's been that way since the beginning of time. It didn't start with feminists.