Friday, October 16, 2020

"Jumping the gap: Men moving to female-dominated jobs"/ "Recognition is great" (Dr. Olympia LePoint)

Mar. 11, 2017 "Jumping the gap: Men moving to female-dominated jobs": Today I found this article by Claire Cain Miller in the Globe and Mail:


Even as women moved into men’s jobs, in fields such as medicine, law and business, men did not flock to the lower-status jobs that women mostly did.

That’s changing. Over the past 15 years, according to a new study in the United States, men have been as likely to move into predominantly female jobs as the other way around – but not all men.

 It’s those who are already disadvantaged in the labour market: black, Hispanic, less educated, poor and immigrant men. While work done by women continues to be valued less, the study demonstrates, job opportunities divide not just along gender lines but also by race and class.

At the same time, the women who have continued to make inroads into more prestigious, male-dominated professions in that period are likely to be white, educated, native-born and married, according to the research, which is not yet published.

“More privileged men can resist entry into predominantly female occupations more readily than their less privileged counterparts,” said Patricia Roos, a sociologist at Rutgers University, who did the study with Lindsay Stevens, a sociology doctoral student there.

The gender composition of jobs matters for reasons of equality – fields with a majority of men pay 21 per cent more than those with mostly women. Also, the fastest growing jobs are dominated by women, while the fastest-shrinking ones have traditionally been occupied by men.

The jobs that have become more female are generally professional or managerial in nature , the study found. Some examples of high-paying, high-status jobs done mostly by men in 2000 that had an increased share of women by 2014: supervisors of scientists, which had 19 per cent more women, podiatrists with 8 per cent more and chief executives with 5 per cent more.

Jobs that were mostly female in 2000 and have become more masculine since are lower-status jobs. The share of women who work in stores selling products and answering customer questions fell by 10 per cent; the share for crossing guards and counter clerks each fell 7 per cent, and for textile workers it fell 5 per cent.

Men are much less likely to have moved into the higher-status professions that are majority women, such as nursing and high-school teaching (they became more male by about 2 per cent between 2000 and 2014). The share of women grew slightly in two female-dominated professions: social worker and librarian.

Race, ethnicity and gender have always contributed to who does what work. Women have typically entered occupations when men find better ones, and immigrants have filled the ones women left behind. 

In the 1800s, according to previous research by Roos and Barbara Reskin of the University of Washington, Irish men replaced native-born white women in textile mills. The women moved to middle-class jobs such as teaching – which native born white men were leaving.

The current patterns reflect widening inequality as a whole, said Leslie McCall, associate director of the Stone Centre on Socioeconomic Inequality at CUNY, who was not involved in the new research but said it was consistent with past findings. She said it shows that policy makers who want to improve jobs should focus not on gender or race, but on general working conditions at the bottom of the income ladder.

“People are focusing too much on the white, male working class,” she said, “but if you look at the working class more broadly, the issues are quite similar across all groups: wages, economic security, employment support, training.”

The Rutgers researchers used census data to track 448 occupations. Occupations were considered male or female if they had more than 60 per cent of one sex in 2000, and they were considered to have masculinized or feminized if the percentage of men or women changed by at least 4 per cent by 2014. 

This happened in 27 per cent of occupations. Health care showed some of the most striking changes: Every health-care job except one is more female than in 2000. (The exception is radiation therapists: from 72 per cent female to 65 per cent.)

The share of female dentists, optometrists and veterinarians each increased by more than 10 per cent. The majority of doctors are still men, but women have become the majority in some health-care specialties, including pharmacists and veterinarians.

Men’s movement into low skilled women’s jobs since 2000 is partly a result of the hollowing out of middle-skill jobs in fields such as clerical and manufacturing work, which was described by economist David Autor.

Women were hit harder – female employment in those jobs fell 16 per cent from 1979 to 2007, compared with 7 per cent for men. But women almost uniformly moved into high-skill jobs, while men were more likely to move into low-skill, low-paying jobs.

Other research has found that men resist so-called pink-collar work, and those who end up in the lowest-status of those jobs, such as nurses’ aides who bathe patients and change bedding, are already disadvantaged in the labour market because of race and class.

Sociologists have described the phenomenon as a trap door; these men drop into less desirable jobs. At all levels of work, it seems, white Americans have more choices.
Mar. 6, 2017 "Recognition is great": Today I found this article by Joanne Richard in the Edmonton Journal.  This is a really inspirational story of a woman who triumphed over her poor upbringing:
It’s not rocket science to achieve gender parity — do what you can, when you can, every day, not just on International Women’s Day, March 8.

Dr. Olympia LePoint has boldly gone where no woman has gone before — well, very few — and against all odds. She had to overcome poverty, failing math and science in high school, gang violence, and facial disfigurement to later become an award-winning rocket scientist working at NASA.

“The only way that you can change your life is by changing the way you think about yourself, people and situations,” LePoint says. “Boldness comes from choosing a new way to see the world. When we take actions based on new, courageous thoughts, the power of our lives unleashes itself to change the world.”

She’s a modern-day Hidden Figures character. And just like the unsung NASA team of African-American women portrayed in the Oscar-nominated film who helped launch astronaut John Glenn into space in 1962, she faced adversities and challenges while breaking gender and science boundaries.

When she first started out working as a rocket scientist at Boeing, she was only 21 years old. That was in 1998. “At times, I was the only woman in a room filled with 200 male engineers.”

She rocketed forward through rampant workplace sexism using her incredible math skills to help calculate the probability of catastrophic explosions in space flights, and has since helped launch 28 space missions in her nearly 10-year tenure at NASA, including Endeavor, Atlantis, Columbia and Discovery.

LePoint’s journey began when she was six years old: “I went to a school field trip to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. I told myself I wanted to be like the men I saw launching rockets.”

That launched her passion, but so much stood in her way, including an impoverished childhood, being raised by a single mother — and her one meal of the day was often had at school. 

“We lived next door to a crack house, and because my mother’s bedroom wall bordered our neighbour, she positioned her bed so that a bullet would hit her feet if it ever came in through the wall.”

In high school, she failed algebra, geometry and calculus and made a D in chemistry. Her Grade 11 math teacher offered to tutor her for free. “That teacher changed the course of my life, because he taught me how to think differently. He helped me realize the true power of my brain and that my biggest roadblock was fear.”

LePoint ended up in the top five of her graduating class of 6,500 at California State University, Northridge.

“When I heard, ‘no, you cannot become an award-winning rocket science because you are of colour, because you are a woman or because you come from poverty,’ I replaced it with, ‘Yes, I can. Now, how can I do it?’ ”

Now, launching young minds and unleashing their brain power fuels her.



This week's theme is women in the workplace:


"Eliminating the gender gap: Thanks to millennials, change is coming"/ "Leaders need not heed gender stereotypes"




"Navigating through the Trump era"/ "Championing gender equality in the workplace starts at grassroots level"



My week: 


Oct. 10, 2020 "Edmonton Convention Centre to be used as 24-7 homeless shelter throughout the winter": I found this article on Facebook.  I like to share this because it's about helping the homeless: 

The Edmonton Convention Centre will be used as 24-7 shelter to accommodate homeless residents throughout the winter.

Part of the Downtown city-owned facility will be activated to provide shelter for 300 people overnight and space for 400 people during the day with access to meals, showers, health and wellness support services as well as housing support workers to help transition to permanent, supportive housing.

The temporary shelter, funded through $8 million from the federal and provincial governments, will be up and running from the end of October until March 31.

Interim city manager Adam Laughlin said the COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on the homeless community and also increased the amount of people experiencing homelessness. About 180 people are becoming homeless in the city every month, he said.

“The pandemic created a gap in services and increased the number of people falling into homeless each month,” Laughlin said in a Friday afternoon news release. “This temporary facility provides those people with safety, services and a pathway to permanent housing.”




"Too much candy: Man dies from eating bags of black licorice": Here is some crazy news:


A Massachusetts construction worker’s love of black licorice wound up costing him his life. Eating a bag and a half every day for a few weeks threw his nutrients out of whack and caused the 54-year-old man’s heart to stop, doctors reported Wednesday.

“Even a small amount of licorice you eat can increase your blood pressure a little bit,” said Dr. Neel Butala, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who described the case in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The problem is glycyrrhizic acid, found in black licorice and in many other foods and dietary supplements containing licorice root extract. It can cause dangerously low potassium and imbalances in other minerals called electrolytes.


Eating as little as 2 ounces of black licorice a day for two weeks could cause a heart rhythm problem, especially for folks over 40, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns.

“It’s more than licorice sticks. It could be jelly beans, licorice teas, a lot of things over the counter. Even some beers, like Belgian beers, have this compound in it,” as do some chewing tobaccos, said Dr. Robert Eckel, a University of Colorado cardiologist and former American Heart Association president. He had no role in the Massachusetts man’s care.

The death was clearly an extreme case. The man had switched from red, fruit-flavored twists to the black licorice version of the candy a few weeks before his death last year. He collapsed while having lunch at a fast-food restaurant. Doctors found he had dangerously low potassium, which led to heart rhythm and other problems. Emergency responders did CPR and he revived but died the next day.


Jeff Beckman, a spokesman for the Hershey Company, which makes the popular Twizzlers licorice twists, said in an email that “all of our products are safe to eat and formulated in full compliance with FDA regulations,” and that all foods, including candy, “should be enjoyed in moderation.”




Oct. 11, 2020: "Ala. Woman Claims She Shot Alleged Rapist in Self-Defense, But She's Charged with Murder Anyway": Yesterday I found this story on Yahoo news, but only found the Feb. 2020 story:


An Alabama woman has been charged with murder after she fatally shot a man — but she says that he had beaten and raped her and she shot him in self-defense under the state’s Stand Your Ground law.

Brittany Smith, 32, shot an acquaintance, Todd Smith, three times in the kitchen of her home in Stevenson, Alabama. She was arrested and charged with murder in his death.

But when she was interviewed by police, she said that she had been raped by the man and said the man was threatening to kill her and her brother.

On Monday, Jackson County Circuit Judge Jenifer Holt rejected the “Stand Your Ground” self-defense claim, citing inconsistencies in Brittany’s testimony.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/ala-woman-claims-she-shot-173121821.html


"Alabama woman pleads GUILTY to murdering man 'who raped her and then strangled her brother' and is sentenced to seven months in jail": Here is the Oct. 10, 2020 story:

The Alabama woman who fatally shot a man who she said he was strangling her brother hours after raping her has pleaded guilty to murder in the case.

Brittany Smith, 32, pleaded guilty on Friday and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with all but 18 months suspended. With credit for time served, she will serve seven more months in the Jackson County Jail.

She admitted to fatally shooting Todd Smith, no relation, early on January 16, 2018, but had sought a Stand Your Ground defense, saying that Todd had raped her hours earlier and was in the process of choking her brother, who came to her home to confront Todd about the sexual assault.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8825697/Alabama-woman-pleads-GUILTY-murdering-rapist.html

My opinion: This is a crazy story.  This was self- defense.  Also it's not like she's spending 20 yrs in prison.  She seems to be spending 4 yrs in prison since 2018.

Oct. 13, 2020 "After 37 years, convicted B.C. child killer to argue wrongful conviction": Here are some excerpts:

On an October day in 1983 in the coastal B.C. town of Prince Rupert, a first-degree murder trial began for a 17-year-old named Phillip Tallio who was accused of sexually assaulting and killing his 22-month-old cousin.

According to court documents, a psychologist who spoke with the teen at the time claimed Tallio, who came from the tiny First Nations community of Bella Coola, had the mental capacity of a 12-year-old and a "rather blind faith that someone will come and rescue him."

That didn't happen. 

Instead, in what Tallio's lawyers claim was a miscarriage of justice fuelled by police "tunnel vision," ineptitude of legal counsel and the questionable tactics of a controversial forensic psychiatrist, Tallio pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

According to the defence submissions, Tallio was the person who discovered Delavina Mack's body at the home of the child's grandparents in the early hours of April 23, 1983. 

She had been sexually assaulted and asphyxiated.

The victim's father told police he and his wife had asked Tallio to check on her — something his wife later denied at a preliminary hearing.

The previous night had been full of partying in Bella Coola, but Tallio had not been drinking.

Witnesses who were not interviewed by police at the time claimed they saw the teen walking calmly to the house and then running from the scene looking "really concerned and scared" minutes later.

Tallio's lawyers have focused their sights on two alternate suspects: his uncle, Cyril, was convicted in the '90s of sexually assaulting young girls, and Delavina's great-grandfather Wilfred, who was known to have done the same. Both men are now dead.

Witnesses unearthed by the defence claimed a box of Wilfred's bloody clothes was burned on the day of the murder, and that Cyril was seen carrying garbage bags from the house where the child was killed and headed to a spot where plumes of smoke were then observed.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/tallio-murder-wrongful-conviction-1.5758075

My opinion: I think Phillip Tallio is innocent after reading this 1 article.

Oct. 14, 2020 Exercise at home: I work at restaurants and I'm always on my feet.  I like to listen and dance to music as exercise.

During COVID-19, I have been walking for 15 min. in the front and backyards of my home.  I do that in the morning and in the afternoon.  30 min. of exercise a day.  I was listening to my ipod.  Then I brought my tablet outside to listen to music.  Then I listen to my self-development audios/ videos.  I always post them on my Facebook page.

Now it's cold, so I walk inside my house.  I listen to the self-development audios/ videos.


Dexter TV show reboot: I saw the first season when it was on CTV.  Then I rented the season 2 dvds.  That's all I saw.  I looked up this show on Netflix, but it isn't on there.  I would be open to watching this reboot.

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/dexter-showtime-rebooting-serial-killer-200015929.html

The Dreamwork Summit: I forwarded this to my friends 2 days ago, and I have been posting this on my Facebook page.  It's about the dreams you have at night and how they can help you in your waking life.

I used to be really interested in this when I was a teen, because I read this in teen magazines.  As an adult, it turns out my dad had a couple of dream books and I read them in the last few years.

https://thedreamworksummit.com/program/36766


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