Today my cousin paid us a visit. She is a technician working in an electronics factory. She has been very unhappy recently because of a quarrel with her boss. It all started when she was denied a chance to go abroad for a training course.



By qualification she was the ideal choice - a college degree, a working knowledge of English and generally acknowledged as very good in her field. But the final choice fell on a young man inferior to her in every respect. Naturally she was very upset and wanted to know why. Her boss who in fact quite liked her told her quite candidly.



"We did think of sending you but decided against it because you are a girl. " The answer infuriated her all the more and she accused him of sex discrimination. The best explanation she could get out of him was that it would not be "convenient" for a girl to be on her own in a foreign country as there was only one vacancv.Not convenicnt for whom? For herself? She didn't mind. For her fellow trainees? That's sheer nonsense. For her boss? How and in what way?





Poor girl , I quite sympathize with her , but that women are at a disadvantage is a reality she'll have to face. I told her that our form master was telling us only the other day that girls shouldn't aim too high in choosing their future speciality or choosing a university: Certain subjects and certain departments are almost closed to them. They'll have to have 10 or more marks than the boys in order to be accepted.





"And it's not only the colleges and universities," Mum explained with anger. "All organizations and work units are equally bad in sex discrimination when taking in new mployees.





One's sex is more important than one's other qualities , it seems. Some departments take in women just as if they are forced to buy some inferior goods. The bargaining that goes on just makes me sick. You want to buy a carton of high-grade cigarettes? Very well , you must buy three packs of the cheap brand as well. So if you want to assign one girl to our department, you must give us two boys as well. It's really disgusting ! "





"I don't blame them really, " said Dad. "However good a girl is , when she marries,trouble begins. First there is this long maternity leave. Then there'll be constant leaves because there will always be this or that wrong .with her darling baby. Even when she works she will be constantly thinking of her darling child or knitting for him or her. And she becomes petty too,breaking into tears at the slightest provocation and quarrelling with others over trifles.





This naturally brought a barrage of protests and condemnations from the two women in the room who almost tore him to pieces. In the end it was Granny who came to his rescue."Well, a woman's place is at home, as I always say. And what do you want to go abroad for, child? Think of all the dangers! How can girls cope with them? I think your leaders were quite right in not letting you go. "





"Oh Granny, you don't know anything at all! You are still living in the old world. It seems our future lies in the future generation," my cousin said pointedly to Dad, referring to me. Actually she is only ten years older than me.

Equality of the sexes is certainly a very complicated problem. Just having equal rights to vote and equal pay for equal work have not solved the problem, not by a long shot.
关键字:好文共赏
生词表: