It can be difficult to avoid generalizations, can't it? :) Susan Collicot
wrote:
> I find it very amusing that you men are telling us women what we
> need/should want/should do in regards to becoming interested in racing.
Speaking for myself, I actually have plenty of positive experience in that
direction, as cofounder and past president of a major international
sporting competition that (1) since then has formed the basis for all
competitions of its kind in the world, (2) was the genesis for the sport
becoming professional -- that is, for money -- for both men and women, and
(3) is in its 21st year while now being operated by a world body. Here
there are male and female competitors who literally make their living
competing -- that simply did not exist before we created this event and
sport.
In this sport -- professional handgunnng with big-bore firearms -- women
compete with men and win the same prizes as men. Participation by women
grew from nominal to significant -- I'll be glad to find the numbers if
anyone would like to know. The only special encouragement we gave/give to
women was a special series of separate awards for women -- and to children
(we call them "juniors"), and to "foreign" participants (we called them
"international"), and to every other class we knew needed encouragement to
partipate in the sport, such as those using uncommon equipment, etc.
> Listen. You don't know what it feels like to be a woman in racing. You
> never will. There's no way. You're a guy, not a gal. So frankly, seeing
> you guys tell us gals what is needed to attract more gals is quite
> laughable.
See above. I will say that, not being a part of a "protected class", as
they say in the law, that there have been plenty of times when my life
wasn't going as I wanted it to, and it would have been tempting to blame it
on being in a minority of some kind. Having just become an autoxer, I
can't say I felt welcomed with open arms when I started out. Of course
that changed when I went out of my way to get to know people -- the locals
can't be blamed for not knowing who's new, they've got their hands full!
> You know what brought out the most new women drivers to Seattle last
year?
> A 'Women Only' practice. That's right, NO MEN DRIVING. We had over 30
> women show up. Most of those women had never set foot in a car to do
> anything more than go from one place to another. Most weren't fast. But
> damn, they had a blast, and a large number of them came back! And you
> know what most of them told me? They wouldn't have shown up if there had
> been men driving.
However, I do know what it's like to be discriminated against because I am
a man, and what you're describing above is an example. I was told to my
face that a club I wanted to join was for women only, and as a man I could
only participate at special hours when there were no women there. What was
it? A local health club that I didn't notice had just the day before
changed to "women only". I didn't like it, and wouldn't expect any woman
to like the reverse arrangement.
I also am in a minority in my college-level coursework -- paralegal
studies. In my first class, I was the ONLY man in a room of 25 women.
Paralegalism is a professional field that is dominated by women -- men
represent only a few percent of all paralegals in America. I'm in my
second year now and about halfway through the program, and believe me,
being one of the few men in a program full of divorced/divorcing women can
be intimidating (you'd have to be there). But I've stuck it out because,
dammit, I deserve the education -- and once the group realized that I
wasn't going to go away, I was accepted.
As Americans, it's my feeling that it makes sense for us to appreciate the
differences among us, but to discourage "separate but equal" -- that's an
oxymoron. Certainly I was mildly offended when, at my first paralegal club
meeting, the president of the club assumed (I was in jacket and tie) that I
was a visiting husband, not a paralegal student.
Richard Nichols
San Diego, CA USA
rnichol1@san.rr.com
86 Ford Mustang SVO (61B) - 1C
(The Thinking Man's Mustang)
72 Ford Pinto 2.0 (62B) - 3J
(Over Three Million Served)
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