There was one rebuff, nevertheless, against which I was utterly powerless. It had nothing to do with politics, the boss or dues. Seven simple but devastating words: “I need to ask my husband first.”
Despite the endless training we got on how to ease workers’ doubts, we could never really establish a convincing response for the Husband Issue. It would shift the dynamic so suddenly, and require treading on such volatile emotional territory, that we would often politely say goodbye and scuttle out the door.
(For the record: No man I ever spoke to said, “Excuse me, I have to check first with my wife,” before signing a union card.)
The stats still show that women do the majority of shopping in the U.S., but with men facing a higher unemployment rate than women (8.8% compared to 7.9%, according to a February 2011 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report), more men are at home than in the past and in many cases, they are taking a more active role in household duties. While women continue to dominate shopping trips in all retail channels except for convenience stores, men have increased trip shares between 2004 and 2010 in all retail channels but drug stores.
Not only do girls at science museums play with fewer exhibits and spend less time at each one than their male counterparts, adults are also less likely to explain the science content to them, and that’s only if they make it through the front door. Girls are less likely to visit museums in the first place.
“For me, getting real turned off had to do with how women were treated at the contests in the ASP and how women were treated within the surf industry,” she said. “You have to look this particular way, have to have no views, have to be somebody who is basically like a blank billboard upon which a brand can assert their image, and that just never sat well with me.”
(via For Female Surfers, the Challenges Are Out of the Water - NYTimes.com)
