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Great read and totally exposed my gender bias. I did not notice OP was a woman until I started reading responses and totally imagined a Vermont lumberjack.
This lead me to a few questions, though. Crowgirl, did you find any issues specifically gender related? Intimidation, solicitation, generosity, stuff like that simply because you are a woman? I have daughters and am truly curious.
I'm flattered. I think... LOL.
As far as different treatment because of gender during the hurricane trip: I wasn't treated any worse because of it. No one told me I couldn't do anything. The clerks at the stores I bought the stuff on Wednesday looked at me like they weren't entirely sure I knew what I was doing, which was ok because at that point I didn't LOL. I'm a quick study though and figured it out once I had all the crap purchased.
I didn't get hit on or pushed around or anything, probably in part because of my age (48, though I hear I look 35, and I adore whoever tells me that LOL) and height (I'm 5'10" and I DO look like my avatar), and I also usually have a demeanor that doesn't encourage my being trivialized. Lets just leave it at that LOL.
All genders in VT are usually self sufficient (lots of farmers up here) so I'm not an oddity here.
If anything I got treated a little better at times because of being female. One time I'm thinking of was also a classic NYC moment ( New Yorkers are often simultaneously the nicest and nastiest people all at the same time and this incident illustrated it perfectly):
When I was on line for gasoline I was standing in between cars (I was too far away to see if there was a 'cans only' line near the pumps and I didn't want to jump the line). I'm friendly and got talking to the people in the cars in front and in back of me.
To a person, EVERY SINGLE DRIVER offered me a seat in their car so I could warm up (it was cold and I was just wearing a fleece, but being from VT it didn't bother me).
At the same time every time a car passed them on the left and looked like it was going to cut the line the same drivers would start screaming out the drivers window "YOU SOB I'M GONNA KILL YOU YOU BASTARD IF YOU CUT THE LINE YOU GONNA PAY FOR IT". Then they'd turn back to me and once again sweetly offer me a seat in their car so I could get warm LOL .
I was laughing my head off the whole time.
If I was male I don't think they may have offered me time to warm up in their car, especially the female drivers. But I'm sure they would have screamed that they were going to kill me if I tried to cut the line no matter what sex I was LOL.
I may have pissed off some of the people I was working with when we set up the generator but I tried to restrain myself and was joking around a lot during it and people were laughing at least. And if I pissed them off they didn't say so, and I don't really care anyway
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As far as general gender issues, I was raised to believe I could do anything if I was interested in it and tried hard enough. Gender was never made an issue. If you have daughters I suggest this might be a road you'd want to take.
For some background on me, I'm 48, married 21 years, and have a degree in Biology but have worked in IT for 25 years, mostly with men.I have long hair, wear nailpolish, and can cook in my sleep. I can also change motorcycle brake pads, change oil, change a tire, and mow the lawn.
I'm the oldest of 2 girls, and my parents (my father in particular) never told us we couldn't do anything just because we were female. I was my dads pet - I helped him fix the car, he took me to every hardware store on LI, etc. Yet I can also cook and sew, courtesy of my mother. I'm probably a little more comfortable with the "guy tasks" because of my relationship with my father. My sister, who was more of my mother's buddy, is a little more comfortable with the classic girl tasks. But we can both do both, if we have to.
It may have been different if we'd had a brother, he may have been the default for the "kid who does the guy stuff with Dad".
I've always liked this quote by Robert Heinlein
:" A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. ".
I consider it words to live by for both genders, as you never know when something will happen to the person you're relying on for whatever you can't do and you'll have to do it on your own.