Embrace your Feminism side

[ladykatrina]

Women don't get it..If a man buys the wrong beer or dresses like his wife the jabs are endless...And don't even comment on what some other dude is wearing..Get this I change the brakes on a friends car everything rotors and all asked her husband to get in and pump it....I could hear pumping but nothing..I freaked,I thought I had blown the breaks...He was pumping the gas I laughed my tail off and ribbed his tail.(see right there"ribbed his tail" would not go by so well in my group) Well still to this very day,that was 2yrs ogo..It's hard being a guy..Let one of your buds hear you scream after SOMETHING touches you in the river..I could go on and on..

you are right...guys can't wear pink....and are under endless pressure to be macho studs...yet we bitch when they are just being guys...I feel for you men sometimes..I really do..a gal can be tomboyish...but a guy being girly? we all hate him..especially his male freinds....I am no feminist...I like getting attention from guys and being taken care of....sometimes I think we women go too far with what we really expect from guys...I wonder too if at times we are all closet lesbians! :P :shock:

[bluegrassdeb]

I read the first page on the subject here and may sound like I'm not following it but I wanted to post on the idea that alot of lady truckers enjoy trucking besides needing to make a living. I need to make a living and at the same time wish to heck I didn't. I'd druther be rich and own a ranch with some horses, own a beach front home etc. Just play all day. Not drive all day. Heck, I never burned any of my bra's when the ladies of the world were fighting for equality. But at the same time I'm glad they did. I would of been one of those barefoot and pregnants that the shovenist fellows bellow on and on sometimes about and that all us winches are supposed to be home. That kills me when I hear that on the radio. I tell em, look here sonny boy I can whip a breakfast fit for a king in no time. I can whip up about any kind of cookie, cake or pie. Then I go on to say and I can probably drive a truck better than you. I only do that if they start the barefoot stuff. But for real I woulda had a dozen like both of my great grannies. Of course that was another time and place. Not to practical this day and age. That would of been the life for me though. Oh, did I mention I'd had chickens and cows and pigs? Oh my. Anyhow, my point is I'm not out driving trying to prove I'm better than the guys but want some of them to know I did my time raising kids, cooking, cleaning and working in stinkin factories. Time for me to fly. So they better watch out! I had a really bad day so I gotta a little attitude tonight.

[Sheepdancer]

You had bad day, Deb? Heck, you made my day! I spend my days talking to many people who have a terrible attitude. Our conversations today were a nice change. You have the perfect attitude for success in driving or any other industry. You dont have to prove that you are better than many of the men drivers...YOU ARE BETTER. Attitude is EVERYTHING in this or any other industry.
Hope you got some sleep. Call me monday and have a great weekend

[bluegrassdeb]

Thanks Sheepdancer, you're the greatest!

[ThinkingAboutTrucking]

Okay, I think it's fairly safe to say if you are a woman AND a truck driver you are a feminist up to a point. Maybe you don't read Ms. Magazine, but think about it: truck driving has traditionally been a men's profession. Men dominate the industry. And think about it: 50 years ago, in 1957, would YOU have considered a career as a trucker?

[wildkat]

Okay, I think it's fairly safe to say if you are a woman AND a truck driver you are a feminist up to a point. Maybe you don't read Ms. Magazine, but think about it: truck driving has traditionally been a men's profession. Men dominate the industry. And think about it: 50 years ago, in 1957, would YOU have considered a career as a trucker?

OK, just my 2 cents worth.... no bats please

I've been trucking for nearly 30 years now, & have heard it all.. the good, the bad & the ugly so to speak.

I DO NOT consider myself a feminist, but I am tough, strong & independent, mostly because I HAD to be.

Up here in Canada women make up less than 3% of the total driving population, so we are still a bit of a unique sight & where I run in the far north I think there are 4, yes FOUR (1,2,3,4) of us. So, believe me if one of us makes a mistake EVERYBODY knows

I truly love what I do, I own & run my own truck, a 2007 long nosed 379 Peterbilt, Purple. It sticks out LOL Everybody knows it's me, & that's the way I like it, especially in the extremely isolated country that I run in. I have faith that if I'm stuck somewhere one of the many GUYS that run up there will know it's me & stop & help

As a side note it, I was told that at the tender age of 2 (1963) I informed my uncle (who owned 6 trucks at that time) that I was going to drive a truck when I grew up, "just like him" So I guess it's always what I wanted to do.

[Shawnee]

This one was lazy, but not stupid. She would flirt (literally sit on their tool boxes and cross her legs and giggle and toss her hair) around with the male techs to get them to do her work (as a down side to the males of the world this worked ). She would call in sick about twice a month. She also had issues following company guidelines for torquing wheels and double checking oil levels (more to follow on this). When I approached her with this and tried to fire her for attendence and failure to follow directions the district mgr. said I could not because she had called and said she was being discriminated against :twisted: . So I put up with her for another month or so and finally was able to let her go due to not torquing the lugnuts on a car that the wheel came off

So now after all this can you tell me what I did wrong or what can be done better to EQUAL out all sides of employment.

A lot of women pull the discrimination thing, probably because they know they can get away with it, personally I think it is wrong. If a woman (or man) can't do the job they are required to do they have no business being in that job. They shouldn't be given a job just because they are a woman. I think it is bulls@#t that you had to put up with that woman until she did something majorly wrong.

I don't think you did anything wrong, you just happened to hire bad people, these women didn't belong in that job.

It is obvious to see that this woman was only looking to flirt around with the guys, she wasn't interested in the job.

She reminds me of when I was taking auto shop in highschool. There were only 2 girls in the class, the other girl was only there to flirt around, and get attention from the guys, she didn't give a s#$t about learning about cars. I guess it got old for her because by the end of the year there was only one girl in the class, me.

[Shawnee]

Okay, I think it's fairly safe to say if you are a woman AND a truck driver you are a feminist up to a point. Maybe you don't read Ms. Magazine, but think about it: truck driving has traditionally been a men's profession. Men dominate the industry. And think about it: 50 years ago, in 1957, would YOU have considered a career as a trucker?

I don't think that is really true. There was a time when most jobs were male dominated not just trucking, because men were the breadwinners, women raised the kids.

50 years ago I probably wouldn't because I probably would have been raising a family. It seems to me that there has been a masculinization of women in North America. Women now want to do all the jobs that men did, they don't want to have families anymore. Or they still have kids but leave the father or someone else to raise them. They want the man to do all the domestic chores, because why on earth should a woman have to cook or clean! I don't like feminists and their feminist attitude, "Look at me everybody I am a woman and I'm driving a truck! I must be doing something special!" Feminists think that what they are doing is important. They feel the need to show the world that they can do something that a man does.

I may be a strong, tough, independent farm girl, I have been working since I was old enough to lift a hay bale, I was fixing farm machinery and driving tractors on the farm since I was a kid, but I am in no way a feminist. The women in my family before me were strong and tough, working beside their men on the farm but that did not make them feminists. It was necessary in order to survive. They worked hard and still raised kids and cooked and cleaned. My grandmother worked in factories during the war, doing traditionally male jobs, and she certainly wasn't a feminist.

I am only driving a truck to make a living, it is not a dream job for me. I don't need to prove anything for women because I don't think I am doing anything special. I do it so I can pay my bills and eat. I still go home and cook and clean and do laundry for my man.

[wildkat]

Okay, I think it's fairly safe to say if you are a woman AND a truck driver you are a feminist up to a point. Maybe you don't read Ms. Magazine, but think about it: truck driving has traditionally been a men's profession. Men dominate the industry. And think about it: 50 years ago, in 1957, would YOU have considered a career as a trucker?

I don't think that is really true. There was a time when most jobs were male dominated not just trucking, because men were the breadwinners, women raised the kids.

50 years ago I probably wouldn't because I probably would have been raising a family. It seems to me that there has been a masculinization of women in North America. Women now want to do all the jobs that men did, they don't want to have families anymore. Or they still have kids but leave the father or someone else to raise them. They want the man to do all the domestic chores, because why on earth should a woman have to cook or clean! I don't like feminists and their feminist attitude, "Look at me everybody I am a woman and I'm driving a truck! I must be doing something special!" Feminists think that what they are doing is important. They feel the need to show the world that they can do something that a man does.

I may be a strong, tough, independent farm girl, I have been working since I was old enough to lift a hay bale, I was fixing farm machinery and driving tractors on the farm since I was a kid, but I am in no way a feminist. The women in my family before me were strong and tough, working beside their men on the farm but that did not make them feminists. It was necessary in order to survive. They worked hard and still raised kids and cooked and cleaned. My grandmother worked in factories during the war, doing traditionally male jobs, and she certainly wasn't a feminist.

I am only driving a truck to make a living, it is not a dream job for me. I don't need to prove anything for women because I don't think I am doing anything special. I do it so I can pay my bills and eat. I still go home and cook and clean and do laundry for my man.

Hear, hear Shawnee... me too! Me too!! I've been told I'm one hell of a cook to boot!

[GMAN]

I come from a long line of strong feminine women. Many worked outside of the home, ran businesses and still took care of their children and families. A lot of them worked on the farm. There are too many women who don't realize the most important job they can have is that of a mother and wife. That has to be the most difficult and challenging job anyone could have today. Women have become more masculine and men have become more feminine. The roles have become skewed. I have never understood why some women look down on those who decide to stay at home and be a wife and mother. It seems that today while mom's are out fulfilling themselves their children are going to pot.

[LadyNorthStar]

GMAN... brave man. lol

Myself however, I agree with you 100%.

[COLT]

First off, I would like to say... One hard working man should be able to support a family, and be home enough to raise his children as his own...

Times have changed, I know, taxes, the cost of living in a nice neighborhood, "keeping" up with other peoples "standards" etc... BUT...

Some couples won't take the responsibility of having children, I see it all the time... They pay another person to raise "their" children... ???

That's why the kids are all messed up, no role models, no positive ones....

I seen a report last year that predicted this younger generation of kids would be the first generation that would die before their parents....

Young kids are being put on blood pressure pills, getting dieabietes in record amounts, gaining the "obese" badge... IT'S CRAZY....

I think, if a hard working man could make a living ( for a family ) and a " good Woman" could raise the children "she" had... Things would be O.K.

Things are only going to get worse until we as a people get focused...

One parent should work, one parent should raise children...



"and men have become more feminine"

GRRRRRRR I'll Tear You up G Man :wink:

[wildkat]

First off, I would like to say... One hard working man should be able to support a family, and be home enough to raise his children as his own...

Times have changed, I know, taxes, the cost of living in a nice neighborhood, "keeping" up with other peoples "standards" etc... BUT...

Some couples won't take the responsibility of having children, I see it all the time... They pay another person to raise "their" children... ???

That's why the kids are all messed up, no role models, no positive ones....

I seen a report last year that predicted this younger generation of kids would be the first generation that would die before their parents....

Young kids are being put on blood pressure pills, getting dieabietes in record amounts, gaining the "obese" badge... IT'S CRAZY....

I think, if a hard working man could make a living ( for a family ) and a " good Woman" could raise the children "she" had... Things would be O.K.

Things are only going to get worse until we as a people get focused...

One parent should work, one parent should raise children...



"and men have become more feminine"

GRRRRRRR I'll Tear You up G Man :wink:

First off GMAN, COLT, I agree with you both, to a point. But you cannot lay blame squarely at anyone's feet.

I worked when my kids were growing up, not cause wanted to, cause I had to. I was a single parent when it was not fashionable to be one. I was too proud for welfare, too poor to stay at home. I can't tell you how many times I made that awful decision to either pay the rent or eat.

My kids turned out pretty good I think, my daughter once told me, "you can't miss what you've never had". I missed alot in those days, yes I hired sitters, I worked alot of 16 hour days back then, it wasn't easy, but we made it.

My girls don't regret the things I was forced to say "no" to, & believe me I said it an awful lot back then, but they certainly learned the value of things and the importance of QUALITY time, there never seemed to be alot of quanity.We DID things together, I did my utmost to be there for the important things.

So what I am trying to say I think is it's not who stays at home or ever if anyone stays at home to raise the kids, & believe me I ENVIED the ones that got to, but it's important that the kids are raised properly, with a good sense of right & wrong, & taught the concequences of their actions & that they tae responsibility for those actions. That we bring them up to be good citizens, someone that our parents & grandparent would be proud of.

I certainly made my share of mistakes, unfortuneately kids don't come with intruction manuals, we have to learn along the way. I did my best and now that they are both in their middle 20's I am PROUD to say, YES those are MY girls!

Holy crap, sorry for all the typos, kinda tired, another 16 hour day LOL

[GMAN]

Wildkat, you did a great thing for your children. Life isn't always about money. You did what you had to do for your children. You didn't take a handout from the government. You showed your children that life isn't always fair, but you do the best you can with what you have. You kept the family together. I have known some women who were in the same situation as you. Unfortunately, there are too many who take the easy way out. Children need to be taught values and how to make it in the world. They need to learn that they must work for what they want and need. I have no doubt that your children are much better for what they learned from you.

[mommee]

I come from a long line of strong feminine women. Many worked outside of the home, ran businesses and still took care of their children and families. A lot of them worked on the farm. There are too many women who don't realize the most important job they can have is that of a mother and wife. That has to be the most difficult and challenging job anyone could have today. Women have become more masculine and men have become more feminine. The roles have become skewed. I have never understood why some women look down on those who decide to stay at home and be a wife and mother. It seems that today while mom's are out fulfilling themselves their children are going to pot.

I totally agree with you. I too come from a long of strong women. My grandmothers and aunts were all teachers and worked. My grandmother even became a principal and superintendent. My grandfather was strong and told my mom to become an accountant, not so common in the 1960's and in the Philippines. She and my dad had to work when we came here. I grew up with sitters and was a latch-key kid, but she did teach us to be independent. She taught my brother and I to do laundry and cook.

Today I stay home with the kids. Some days it's hard, but I am reminded that I do have an important job raising them right. My husband makes enough for me to stay home. And we aren't rich, so I tell the kids "no, you don't need that". At a young age my daughter understands you can't get everything, but the kids get the important things-like love and disipline.

[GMAN]

There are times when both parents need to work to make ends meet. I think many times it is a matter of having more toys that both work, not necessity. It a matter of priorities. Personally, I think it is better that the husband get another job to make ends meet rather than mom having to leave the children to work. We can often make due with less, rather than either leaving the children with a sitter or by themselves. We could sell the big house and get something affordable. We don't have to get a nice expensive new car. A good used mini van or something functional would do nicely. A car is nothing but transportation. You don't need to spend $50,000 for transportation. The more debt we accumulate the more we need to work to support that debt. If one parent works and the other stays home, we can also probably get along with only one vehicle. People used to car pool and take public transportation, where available. It takes a lot of pressure off of a family to be debt free.

Eating at home can not only save a lot of money but enable families to eat more nutricious meals. It isn't healthy to eat at McDonalds all the time. I think many of the health issues we see in children could be allieviated with proper nutrician and exercise. Parents need to be there for that. We need to teach our children how to be independent and rely on themselves, not the government. We need to teach our children to work for what they want. They need to learn to save and pay cash rather than going into debt. If you have to borrow to buy things, then you cannot afford them. Sorry, I didn't mean for this to turn into a rant. I just think that if we decide to bring children into this world, then we should be prepared to accept the responsibility that goes along with it.

[Shawnee]

Well said GMAN, I agree with everything you said,

[bluegrassdeb]

I agree, with most of what everyone is saying. I didn't read the very last few posts cause im home a short time and just gave my elderly neighbor a perm and need to go take out her rollers and fix up her hair. Yes I was a hairdresser for 30 yrs b4 trucking. But I just want to put my two cents in on why in the world the world has made it so hard on families to get by with just one income. I think its a down right sin!!!!!

[GMAN]

I am not so sure that it is the world, but ourselves that have made it more difficult to get along on one income. We don't need a new vehicle that costs $50,000. We can get along with a use one which costs $2,000.
We could avoid buying big name brands and instead, opt for the no names. Often these are actually name brands without the label any way. Mothers used to sew their children's clothing. My grandmother made a suit for my grandfather once. A sewing machine is much less expensive to purchase than new clothing, and the quality will be much better. For every dollar saved, it is a dollar earned. We don't necessarily need two incomes. We just need to readjust our thinking. We need to start doing more for ourselves.

We could save our money and pay cash for what we buy rather than putting it on a charge card. That would save us about 1/3 or so of the actual purchase price due to most people not paying the entire balance in full at the end of the month. It is much easier to give someone a piece of plastic rather than cash. It doesn't seem that it costs so much when you use plastic. Most people don't consider the actual purchase price when buying big ticket items, only the monthly payment. I suppose I am peculiar in that I ALWAYS want to know the actual cost including interest if it is something that I want to purchase. Charge and debit card issuers charge merchants a fee for every transaction. Fees range from about 2-5%, depending on the card. American Express charges the highest fees. Those charges are passed along to us as consumers. The result is higher costs for items which we could pay cash for and have more money in our pockets.

What we don't seem to realize is that when people stop buying products prices begin to come down. Just look at retail prices at many stores right now. Sales are sluggish so they are reducing prices. If people don't start spending more money to buy at retailers, prices will come down even more. If we start spending prices will go up. We could also start buying American made products. Many products made abroad are inferior. Just look at the dangers of Chinese toys. We used to buy quality. We now only buy cheap. When you go to Walmart and buy a table, it is probably made of particle board. The first time it gets wet it will crumble into saw dust. I would rather have a good used piece of furniture made out of real wood that will last than some of the junk we have available at some of these discount stores. Again, that takes money out of the household.

One reason it costs so much to get by is taxes. There are so many people who demand that the government (we tax payers) support them in some fashion that the government needs more money to do what we demand of them. We need to start living within our means and begin looking out for ourselves. And I don't mean in a selfish way. We need to support ourselves and our families. Children need love not money. I see so many parents who buy their children toys and things rather than spend time with them. They do this to ease their guilt due to not being there for them. The irony of it is that when you consider the cost of a babysitter and added cost of gas, etc., in having the second income, there is often very little benefit to mom working in many cases.

We need LESS government rather than more. The more government the less money we will have to spend on our own needs because it will take more to support the government. If you consider all the taxes we currently spend, we are already giving the government more than 50% of what we earn. There are so many taxes it can boggle your mind. From Social Security Tax to continuity tax. I put a list together once and was amazed at how many taxes we actually pay. And I didn't even cover all of them. Some are not all that great, but it adds up. Every time we fuel our trucks or cars we are paying sales tax (sometimes city, county and state), federal tax, IFTA tax and in some areas, an environmental tax of sorts. For every dollar we spend on taxes we have a dollar less that we can spend on our families.

[Shawnee]

That is a big part of it, people are living beyong their means, and we are bombarded with advertisments for things like cars, toys, computers clothes and other expensive stuff that we really don't need, People are in debt paying for all of this crap. It's not enough anymore to just have a simple home and a car anymore, we need a huge home and 2 cars, and a boat and an ATV, no wonder people believe that both parents need to work, and the kids suffer because of it.

When I was a kid, my father supported the family, he was a very hard working man, when he wasn't trucking he was farming, my mother stayed home with us kids, we were not rich my any means. They mostly drove old cars. Us kids did not get new toys or clothes all the time, like a lot of kids do today, we only got toys for christmas or birthdays. GMAN mentioned that mothers used to make clothes for their kids, my mother did, we got a new outfit every year for school.

I had a great childhood though, what we lacked in toys, we made up for with our imaginations, playing outside, building forts, playing in the woods, riding our bikes. We appreciated what we had. Kids don't have that anymore. I personally know kids who are spoiled rotten, getting new toys is a weekly event, and they have no imagination, everything is computers, they don't play outside and explore the way I did when I was a kid, They get so many toys and stuff that they don't appreciate anything, they lose interest in a toy after a few days. I think it is sad. Children can be happy with simple things in life, it is the parents who think they have to outdo themselves all the time with bigger and more expensive things.

I don't have children, I choose not to have them, but if I did, I wouldn't be driving a truck for a living, I believe strongly that if you choose to have children that you should also choose to raise them.