Lindsey Kregel: Women, Power Tools, & Electoral Votes

“Meet and greet” with author and women’s labor activist Jane Latour. May include a kiosk for multimedia viewing of interview materials with women in nontraditional jobs. Crumb Library, LTEC, Thursday 10:00 – 11:00 am

Women ‘Leaning In’ to Attain Power: Pros and Cons of Sheryl Sandberg’s notion on the Empowerment of Women. Panel with Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Jane LaTour, Kell 105, Th. 2:00 - 3:00 pm

Blue Collar Women: Legacies and Lessons from their Nontraditional Jobs. (part of the Anne Righton Malone lecture series). Jane Latour, Kellas 105, Thursday 4:00 - 5:00 pm

Women taking power seriously. Keynote address by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Hosmer Hall, Thursday 7:30 – 9:30 pm


Women taking Power: Power Tools & Electoral Votes by Lindsey Kregel

Men, listen up! Women are taking over your jobs. Yeah, you read correctly. Women are starting to take positions in nontraditional jobs. To be honest, though, women have been taking over nontraditional jobs since as early as World War II. When the men were fighting the war, women were the ones to be back on the homeland keeping the United States running. Making production of weapons and machinery these were few of the jobs women had to take on top of their already large plate. Women balanced the manly role of working with the women’s role of being the caretaker of the children and the house. Women have had nontraditional jobs since the early 1940s, and many of the jobs were given back to the men when they came home. But, some of these women kept their job after the end of World War II because they liked to be independent and relied on themselves. So women can do it, but it is not easy. All of us should wake up and see the discrimination the female gender has been through, and see how far we CAN go as a gender.

Nowadays women are taking political positions, like Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. These women have shown that they could do a man’s job just as good as them. These are well known women that have struggled to rise to their positions. These are jobs that are in the public eye, well known and well respected positions. But these aren’t the only jobs that women have taken. There are women taking jobs in construction, plumbing, and electrical (LaTour). The website www.talkinghistory.org/sisters/author.html shows interviews and actual women who are in these fields, like Consuelo Reyes, Kay Webster and Joi Beard. These women don’t hold political power, but they do handle power tools.

These women are placed in a very difficult position as they try to be successful in a male dominant field. These women work just as hard as the men in their field, yet still don’t get hired because they are females. Even though they might be equal in their profession, people gear towards the man because of stereotypical ideas. I personally can relate to what these women that have struggled through it. I excelled in all six of the engineering classes I took in high school. When my teacher asked me what I wanted to be, I told him with confidence I wanted to be a structural engineer. My teacher then proceeded to tell me that engineering was a man’s field, and that there was no hope for me to find a job. After hearing this come from a teacher, it crushed my dreams.

Two women who have been persistent in helping to stop gender discrimination in the job force are Jane LaTour and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Both of these women are coming to SUNY Potsdam to inform us of their efforts. Jane LaTour is an advocate for women. Although never being in a nontraditional job herself, she wants to help people understand that there are other women in the field to have support from. She interviewed the women in the above URL and in her book who were from all different nontraditional job fields. Those women took a lot of risks in taking those jobs: they had to face negative attitudes of pity, resentment, and discomfort. They might have had to take a lot of sexist comments on the job about “go make me a sandwich” or “you should be in the kitchen.” That’s what I heard in high school. LaTour will tell us about her interviews and research on women who broke barriers in their fields. So if Jane LaTour helps with women with power tools, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is all about the political power. Her talk is called “Women Taking Power Seriously.” She was the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland (Townsend). She has faced gender discrimination when she attempted to run for office. This shows that women can push through and get the job they want with a lot of hard work and dedication. When you know the material and you know how to do your job, people will take you more serious. Both of these women have advocated for women in jobs and politics. These women in this field struggle with the stress, as well as the competitiveness just to be in their job field (Griffin-Blake et al).

There seems to be some territorial tension about women competing against men for good jobs. Many men might think that women are stepping on their toes by going into a field where now they have to fight against a woman to be hired for a job. Both men and women have not only have had to really know how to do the job: they actually have to perform really well to compete. This means that men and women have to fight the competitiveness of each other. Many people need to understand that gender shouldn’t be as important as the actual outcome of the task. However, there are some women in the union believe that men should have their job fields and that women should have their own job field (“Ms. Blue Collar”).

If you want to know more about the struggle of women in working with power tools and political power, come see LaTour and Kennedy Townsend’s talks on April 11. These will be great events to come see, because they might help women learn how to cope with discrimination and stereotyping. This will be an event to finally understand how these women were so influential and were able to help other women through the tough times of being in a nontraditional job field. This event might also answer many of the questions that came up while you read this article. Both men and women are encouraged to come to this even. Please come and support your fellow ladies who are trying to strive for their dreams.

Works Cited

Kennedy Townsend, Kathleen “Why Brown is not the Pro-life Candidate in Massachusetts Senate Race.” Huffington Post, 2010. Web 14. Feb 2013.

Latour, Jane/ Talking History “Sisters in the Brotherhood: Working women organizing for equality in New York City.” Talking History, 2012. Web.14, Feb. 2013.

"Ms. Blue Collar." Time 103.18 (1974): 80. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Mar. 2013.

Griffin-Blake, C. Shannon, Pattie J. Tucker, and Leandris Liburd. "Mind Over Matter: Exploring Job Stress Among Female Blue-Collar Workers." Journal Of Women's Health (15409996) 15.10 (2006): 1105-1110. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Mar. 2013.