(The following article by Ter-
rance MacCormack is conden-
sed from Plant Administration &
Engineering. The article does
not: get at the fundamental class
question — the extra capitalist
exploitation of women —nor at
the question that the ideas of
male superiority are deliberately
cultivated to: maintain that ex-
ploitation, but it does a useful
job in descriptively unfolding the
dimensions of the problem, and
tilting at the carefully cultivated

“ mystique of male superiority.)

The movement of women from
drawing rooms to industry has
brought with it a revolution in
labor’s manpower potential. Par-
adoxically, industry has rendered
impotent most of the possibili-
ties this movement held. ~
' Some companies refuse to em-
ploy women in the plant. Others ~
do, but for unequal pay. Most
maintain rigid work policies re-
garding women, and place them
under restricted job titles.

Of the more than 2.5 million
women workers in Canada to-
day, half are in clerical work or
low-level service jobs, -while
three quarters of those in the
professional and technical cate-
gory are in the traditional fields
of. teaching: and nursing. A token
few are in industrial positions
which make full use of women’s
abilities. Ser.
'_The door to management js
sealed to women. Barred from
competing on an equal basis
with men, women are channeled
into jobs thought “suited” to
their capabilities. Thus, they are
led willy nilly to the assembly
line in the hardened belief that
women are better adapted to
boring types of work than men.
On the way, they are discourag-
ed from thinking of management
possibilities.. They are told that
women are too emotional and
unstable under pressure and
therefore could not make im-
portant or top management de-
cisions; that they have-a higher
rate of turnover than men; and
that as a long-term career in-
vestment, they are a poor risk.

Women have been shrouded in
mythical notions and hand-me-
down misconceptions. They re-
main unrecognized members of
the labor force.

They have been rigidly classi-
fied into positions of minimal
challenge and interest, slotted
into typified roles, and have
“thus been unable to prove them-
selves valuable assets to all
areas of plant operation. No at-
tention has been paid to apti-
tudes, preferences, suitabilities
and skills. No diversified train-
ing programs have been estab-
lished. ,

There is a wealth of industrial
opportunity in Canada for wo-
men as professional, skilled and
semi-skilled workers. But they
have been denied these oppor-
tunities.

.That -women are less §intelli-
gent than men; that they are in-
nately illogical, mechanically in-
ept, over-emotional, passive and
disinterested in a working ca-
réer; that they are generally less
capable than men as leaders, less
likely to remain loyal to a com-
pany; that they are a poor risk;
that they are personally unstable
in positions of responsibility and
more suited to. mundane work—
these are some of the accepted
notions and myths surrounding
women. These are a few of the
arguments that help define her
role in industry.

Women do not have a lower

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23,

mental capacity than men. Tests
have proven that the range in
intelligence is the same in both
sexes. They have also shown
that women are just as mechan-
ically and logically proficient as
‘men. What has happened is that
women have been traditionally

dissuaded from being so inclin-.

ed. They have been conditioned
into thinking that they are in-
deed inferior when it comes to
things mechanical and _ logical.

Industrial psychologists also
have found the assumption that
women are better suited to mon-
otonous and repetitive work on
the assembly line to be without
foundation. There are jobs that
women can perform with greater
dexterity than men, such as in-
tricate assembly work, but the
psychological adjustments re-
main the same for both sexes.

The arguments that women
are disinterested in work and
that they have a higher rate of
absenteeism are, again, hollow
ones. The veracity of these state-
ments becomes a smug excuse
for “keeping women down”.
Says a woman who has recorded
her personal observations and
impressions during nine years of
employment as a_ semi-skilled
plant worker:

“Women put up with condi-
tions and jobs that a man would
not hesitate to refuse or leave.
If the job does not suit him he
walks out. He worries far less,
stands up for himself and goes
his own way. A woman feels
far more vulnerable and this
very readily gives her an infer-
iority complex. Life in a factory
does everything to foster and
preserve this complex. The wo-
men are given the worst jobs,
i.e. the piece work that the men
will not do because it is boring,
monotonous or badly paid.”

The (women) have found man-
agement still clinging to the as-
sumption that males are more
acceptable to clients and em-
ployees, and that other women
prefer to work for men. Some
company policies bar women
from management positions,
while others simply do not in-
vite women to take a supervis-
ory job—this in the diehard be-
lief that. it is inconsistent with
tradition that a women be allow-
ed to wear the pants in the com-

pany.
1970—PAGE 6

-

A woman manager stirs up
sensitive feelings in men. They
resent her as boss, and seriously
doubt whether a woman can
step into a role where workers
will feel confident in her judg-
ments, or ‘be a good manager.
But there is nothing that separ-
ates her ability from that of a
man. The ability to manage does

not rest on differences in sex. -

Granted, women face psychic
and physiological changes during
life that are said to hinder their
abilities at times, but it has been
shown that men go through men-
tal changes in life as well. A
man, like a woman, has his psy-
chic ups and downs. =

As for the weak excuse that
women do not stick with career
jobs because of family obliga-
tions, and thus present poor
managerial risks, the only réal
advantage of the male is that he
can work during his few child
raising years.

Alas, despite the many pleas
for a separation of fact from
fantasy surrounding her abilities,
the female remains handcuffed
in a “man’s world”. Little is
done to encourage women wish-
ing to break the ties with their
sex. Training programs and ap-
prenticeship schemes are exclu-
sively male oriented in most
plants, and although there have
been women enrolled in engi-
neering and technological cours-
es, universities have generally
educated their women under-
graduates for entrance into the
traditional fields of teaching,
nursing and social work. Thus,
when many of the biggest com-
panies in Canada visited a Cana-
dian university last year, they
refused interviews to women
graduates for 2,024 out of 3,268
vacancies offered. The same can
be expected for the graduates of
1971.

What is called for is a com-
plete mental reassessment of
women and their place in indus-
try. It may be easy to scoff and
dismiss as frivolity and activist
nonsense the liberation band-
wagon built by incendiary fem-
inists chanting equal rights and
privileges — but don’t be too
hasty. Look again! For _behind
this feminist rage tails an army
of less virulent, less extremist
women who are genuinely frus-
trated and impatient with the
self-satisfied business world.

Higher ireight rates =

Discontent

Once in awhile
separatism, western problems,
western anti-east attitudes and
so on.

The underlying factor in these
attitudes are economic. The
prairies comprise an-area of eco-
nomic underdevelopment and
discrimination as part of the
home market for: monopoly,
whose head offices are located
in Toronto or New York.

An example of the underlying
economic factor is contained in
freight rates which discriminate
against the prairie dweller, forc-
ing up his cost of living as he
foots the bill for the long
prairie haul of the railway com-
panies.

Regina consumers pay the
same freight for shipping can-
ned goods from Toronto to Van-
couver. These
fruits, vegetables, soups, jams,
jellies, meats, milk, cereals, sal-
ad dressing, pickles, mushrooms
and vinegar.

The freight rate from Toronto
to Regina, 1,588 railway miles,
is $2.21 per cwt on a 25 ton
minimum. It is $2.44 to Saska-
toon for’ 1,711 railway miles. But
it is only $2.21 for the 2,695
miles from Toronto to Vancou-
ver.

Into the prime U.S. markets
of Minnesota and Wisconsin the
Prince Albert pulp mill is 500 to
550 miles closer (all in Canada)
than mills at Kraft, B.C., and
Hinton, Alberta, which share the
same gateway into the U.S. The
rate advantage to the Prince Al-
bert mill is 60 cents a ton.

However, again sharing the
same gateway into the California
market, the Kraft and Hinton
mills are about 500 to 500 miles
closer than the PA mill, but en-
joy a freight rate advantage of
$4.80 and $3.80 a ton over the

_ PA mill,

The Saskatchewan  govern-
ment’s mineral resources minis-

REGINA — A most peculiar
case: 12 persons were arrested
and charged in a riot case. What
happened is that the Regina
Kinsmen held a concert for a
visiting U.S. army band. A peace
demonstration of about 150 per-
sons took place outside, with the
usual sprinkling of Maoists and
Trotskyites.

Some shoving and rough stuff
took place between the sponsors
of the meeting and the demon-
strators afterwards. Some of the
demonstrators, not involved in
the rough stuff, talked to the
visiting American army musician
who told them that the reason
they were in the band was to
avoid active service in Vietnam.

e

the papers
erupt with talk about Western

include canned

on prairies

ter states that the freight
on potash from Saskatchew
Ontario, approximately
ton, forces Ontario customers © |
buy from U.S. sources. ‘ote
Mineral Resources Minit
Cameron says, “When one © |
siders that we can ship. pol aL:
to Vancouver by rail and ff0))
there by ship into the hea | i
the Asia market for 4 es
freight cost comparable to ship’ |
ments into Ontario, we. are © 4
pelled to ask how long wé a y
suffer this shocking discrimi™ |.
tion.” tg
Saskatchewan pays the hig
est rate paid by any potash a
ducers in the world to reach ™
water at $9.54 a ton to shiP
Vancouver port. During the
the U.S. railways reduced ite (8
freight rate on potash from oY
Carlsbad mines in New Mexl
to tidewater at Houston, 1
to $5.75 a ton from $8.80 2 tot
This year the SaskatcheWw™
government put forward le
tion to impose a higher ta¥
railway held mineral rights te
a total of 5.8 million acres. rH}
‘legislation is not law yet. ~
government threatens that ut
less there is a reduction
freight rates, the legislation
go into effect. a
These, for the Saskatchew™.
government, extreme actin
are a reflection of the matt |
crisis for pulp and potash. “|
Saskatchewan government mov
ed against organized labor mY] }
more switfly. ; i
Nonetheless, it is the set) :
katchewan working people WJ
pay the extra costs and, ha@
concerned imports only, “| "
Saskatchewan governm® |
would not be threatening “|
railway monopolies. It is t 7) ‘
hoped that the SaskacheWt
workers and farmers will stfB}
gle to see that the big mon?
lies are not the only ones |
benefit from the current stté)
gle. i

pps

After it was. all over, the
Court declared that a “riot”
taken place, and a dozen dem?)
strators were arrested and chale)
ed by the police, via the ay, :

vince’s attorney-general’s ©
partment.

A defense committee was~ “i
tablished as a branch of the ¢! il
rights organization. But 45 }
turned out, there was no oné
defend. Judge Boyce annoult”,
that charges against eight wa
dropped. Later charges against |
demonstrator named Lipt 4h
were also dropped. Then chaz :
against the others were dism™
ed. rr :

Some riot! Reminiscent of ©
“spy” trials of 1946. 4