It's a naked-in-front-of-the-fan, ice-in-the-cat's-water-dish, klondike-bar-for-dinner kind of day. 98 with 50% humidity. And I biked home, because I'm tough like that. Or because I hate the 5 and C got a ride home today.
Yuck.
6.23.2012
things to ponder
Let's take a list of tasks:
Vacuuming
Dusting
Cleaning windows/mirrors/glass
Emptying Trash
Minor Repairs
etc
Who do you envision doing these tasks? What does the person look like?
Now let's change the setting.
Does the person look different if these tasks are done at a school or in an office rather than in the home?
This is the question I asked myself at work this week. Through our program, we had placed a number of youth (over the age of 16) at maintenance jobs at various non-profits throughout the city. This year, a lot of those positions were filled by young women rather than young men. When we spoke to these non-profits and let them know who had filled these positions, the most common sentiment was surprise. Huh! We figured it'd be a guy!
And yet, most of the things they're doing would be considered "women's work" in a household. A similar thing occurs with food. Most kitchen staff, be they short-order cooks or personalities on Food Network, tend to be male (except possibly the exception of bakers and the salad station). And yet, when those same activities take place in a household, they are considered traditionally female roles.
So what makes it different? Why are these things considered men's jobs in one setting and women's job's in another?
What's your take?
Vacuuming
Dusting
Cleaning windows/mirrors/glass
Emptying Trash
Minor Repairs
etc
Who do you envision doing these tasks? What does the person look like?
Now let's change the setting.
Does the person look different if these tasks are done at a school or in an office rather than in the home?
This is the question I asked myself at work this week. Through our program, we had placed a number of youth (over the age of 16) at maintenance jobs at various non-profits throughout the city. This year, a lot of those positions were filled by young women rather than young men. When we spoke to these non-profits and let them know who had filled these positions, the most common sentiment was surprise. Huh! We figured it'd be a guy!
And yet, most of the things they're doing would be considered "women's work" in a household. A similar thing occurs with food. Most kitchen staff, be they short-order cooks or personalities on Food Network, tend to be male (except possibly the exception of bakers and the salad station). And yet, when those same activities take place in a household, they are considered traditionally female roles.
So what makes it different? Why are these things considered men's jobs in one setting and women's job's in another?
What's your take?
6.12.2012
goals and such
I'm completing my last week of my 16 week long. I'm proud of the success I've made, but I still admit I'm damned slow. So since I skipped my run this morning, I decided to make it up at sunset tonight. It was cool day, an even cooler night and lots of light late in the day. I realized that if I can run for (almost) 60 minutes straight, there's no reason why I have to take my 30 minute run so easily.
Last week, I ran for 30 minutes at about a 15 min/mile pace. So I decided to really kick it into gear tonight, and ended with a pace of about 13:25, shaving more than 1.5 minutes off my mile pace over the course of 2.25 miles. I'm immensely proud of this success.
I also must admit that I have a secret goal. I've only told DH. He and a mutual friend of ours ran in a 5k together. DH hadn't had a chance to train, so had a less than stellar result. But our friend had worked really hard to train and finished the 5k in just shy of 30 minutes.
When I run my first 5k, I want to beat his time.
I still have a lot of work to do, but I think it's possible, maybe even by the end of the summer. I'm not going to push it. But I do want to accomplish it. And I want to incorporate more biking. One book on running I read said that cross training like that can actually help improve times more than just running more. So that's what I am going to do.
Wish me luck!
Last week, I ran for 30 minutes at about a 15 min/mile pace. So I decided to really kick it into gear tonight, and ended with a pace of about 13:25, shaving more than 1.5 minutes off my mile pace over the course of 2.25 miles. I'm immensely proud of this success.
I also must admit that I have a secret goal. I've only told DH. He and a mutual friend of ours ran in a 5k together. DH hadn't had a chance to train, so had a less than stellar result. But our friend had worked really hard to train and finished the 5k in just shy of 30 minutes.
When I run my first 5k, I want to beat his time.
I still have a lot of work to do, but I think it's possible, maybe even by the end of the summer. I'm not going to push it. But I do want to accomplish it. And I want to incorporate more biking. One book on running I read said that cross training like that can actually help improve times more than just running more. So that's what I am going to do.
Wish me luck!
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