Comments on: On Gender and Parking http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/12/29/on-gender-and-parking/ Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 23 May 2012 02:41:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Maique http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/12/29/on-gender-and-parking/#comment-15982 Maique Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:42:55 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=1346#comment-15982 Regarding the foundry practice of using women as drivers of cranes moving molten metal, is there a similar practice/preference in the construction industry favoring women drivers for the tower cranes used at building sites? If 'Yes', what is the basis for the preference and when/how did it emerge? If 'No', then what factors distinguish foundry crane driving from tower crane driving that contribute to the female dominance in foundry crane driving? Dissertation anyone? Regarding the foundry practice of using women as drivers of cranes moving molten metal, is there a similar practice/preference in the construction industry favoring women drivers for the tower cranes used at building sites? If ‘Yes’, what is the basis for the preference and when/how did it emerge? If ‘No’, then what factors distinguish foundry crane driving from tower crane driving that contribute to the female dominance in foundry crane driving? Dissertation anyone?

]]> By: IA Pappas http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/12/29/on-gender-and-parking/#comment-15976 IA Pappas Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:29:40 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=1346#comment-15976 The results of the small study by CC Wolf & al. seem to run against well-established foundry practice to use women to drive the huge cranes that carry the molten metal in buckets holding hundreds of tons; I was always told that the accepted wisdom is that women have a better "sense of space" needed to control the movements of the cranes and the pouring of the metal into forms. Can the authors perhaps comment? The results of the small study by CC Wolf & al. seem to run against well-established foundry practice to use women to drive the huge cranes that carry the molten metal in buckets holding hundreds of tons; I was always told that the accepted wisdom is that women have a better “sense of space” needed to control the movements of the cranes and the pouring of the metal into forms. Can the authors perhaps comment?

]]> By: Spokker http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/12/29/on-gender-and-parking/#comment-10471 Spokker Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:44:01 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=1346#comment-10471 Young men are the worst drivers on the road and are appropriately reamed when it comes to car insurance. I could not afford car insurance at one time because of that fact. Were they taking a potentially biologically innate, and perhaps marginal, difference, and whipping it up into an ever-perpetuating, and debilitating, social construct of drivers with particular, gendered needs? No, they were covering their asses. The Chinese government has a stupid idea for making parking lots bigger for women, but it's no less debilitating than the statistical discrimination that resulted in me not being able to afford car insurance as a young man. Young men are the worst drivers on the road and are appropriately reamed when it comes to car insurance. I could not afford car insurance at one time because of that fact.

Were they taking a potentially biologically innate, and perhaps marginal, difference, and whipping it up into an ever-perpetuating, and debilitating, social construct of drivers with particular, gendered needs? No, they were covering their asses.

The Chinese government has a stupid idea for making parking lots bigger for women, but it’s no less debilitating than the statistical discrimination that resulted in me not being able to afford car insurance as a young man.

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