[LMB] (OT) Gender: New question

[Katherine Collett]

On Nov 25, 2007, at 6:26 AM, Mary wrote:
> I never wanted to  be a
> boy, but that might possibly have been because I was encouraged to  
> try  anything
> I wanted to do--playing with all kinds of toys from erector sets  
> to  dolls,
> hunting, fishing, and majoring in a science; so I didn't envy boys  
> the  way I
> would have if forced into what the list women seem to feel is a more
> traditionally feminine role.  I'm still feeling rather stunned that  
> I seem  to have had
> more freedom to choose my own way in the 1930s and 40s  than a lot  
> of girls
> and women are talking about having many years  later.  I wasn't the  
> only female
> in my town and college who had  that freedom; I was not even one of  
> the more
> extreme ones.

An interesting data point from back in the mid '70s: my sister in her  
early teens once said that when she grew up she wanted to be a forest  
ranger and also have a farm with horses and sheep and so on; when I  
asked her what would happen to the farm while she was off forest  
ranging, she said without thinking that her wife would take care of  
the animals, and then we both did a classic double-take.  She didn't  
have any problem thinking of herself as having a traditionally  
masculine career, but then the masculine aura of the career crept in,  
I guess.  (She's now an assistant district attorney and the mother of  
three children.)

Katherine