Lawmaker wants FMCSA to protect Women in Trucking

Now, I will say that the guys that are coming from other industries, with long work histories will have done their homework more and have a different set of questions.

But it seems that there are quite a few guys who want to truck who when doing their research, have questions on everything but the job they’re wanting to do.
It’s like someone joining the military asking veterans about the women overseas. Or going on vacation in Germany when they should be preparing for boot camp.

 

One thing that might make some difference, is women coming in know up front that they are entering into a field totally dominated by men, and that fact may just tend to make them have their ducks in a row, more than a lot of guys.
Little do they know that a lot of men these days, have more in common with women than men compared to a few years back.

 

Lol, a couple of winters ago I drove from LA to Boise to Seattle to Eugene, and I had to train at least 5 male truck drivers how to install chains, and that was just the ones who happened to stop behind me. One place 3 walked up to me at about the same time, so I ran a regular class.
Showed them one step on my truck, and then they went back and did it while I did mine, then I would help them, then show them the next step, and do it on mine.
And then inspected and corrected their work, and we hit the road!

So implying that only women can't put chains on or do basic truck repairs is not looking very accurately at the state of trucking these days

 

Your right, most of the ' men ' steering wheel holders out there today cant chain or repair anything.

 

Yeah, no. There is no difference between an average woman and an average man in mechanical ability. The difference is in what they have been taught to do. When I went thru high school 25 years ago boys were actively discouraged by the "academic advisor" from taking classes in the Home Economics department - ie cooking, sewing. Those are skills that every person should know how to do.

Girls were discouraged from taking "Shop" classes - ie electronics, graphic design, automotive - from the "academic advisor". If they persevered and enrolled in a "Shop" class they had to deal with the dismissive attitude of the teacher and retched treatment from their classmates. I had a female friend that wanted to learn how to weld and the crud she went thru opened my eyes to what discrimination is.

It's not the lifestyle, it's access. It is only recently that the industries you mentioned became accessible to women. Women have been fighting to join the various branches of the Armed forces for more than a century. Limited advancement coupled with rampant discrimination - both explicitly and inherent - coupled with social norms have caused women to be underrepresented. This is changing but demographic change takes time.

I invite your response to the following:

CRST Sex Harassment Documents Unsealed - Real Women in Trucking

Former driving trainer sentenced in rape of trainee at training facility

SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class research journals

 

I didn’t say whatever you are quoting.

 

Tell that to Ellen Voie who has worked very hard since 90s to bring to light.
what I've seen out here there's quite a few women I would hire in a heart beat compared to some of these CSA losers..
but I work at we have about four women drivers I could run circles around half of these clowns and their professional and as safe as can be... that's all I'm going to say on this comment feed here.
as I am a lifetime OOIDA member I am also a proud member of WIT along with many more old school professional drivers like me

 

OK< what is WIT?

 

Something screwed up. I quoted your post about drivers getting what they deserve, making a point about how basic respect should be given until a person's actions dictate otherwise and how women, as a rule, have been denied that basic respect.

The quote that was attributed to you in my response was said by someone else.

 

A person deserves to be treated with respect until their actions dictate otherwise.

The fact is that for a long time women in this industry have not been treated with the same respect that is routinely given to men. I have called out one of our in house training group members about his BS treatment of women - first to him and then to management. The "gentleman" in question would allow men who "showed improvement" to pass while failing women for inconsequential errors. It took 3 years before we could fire the $#*&$^%# because there was no "smoking gun".