I was 13 in 1970 when the MTM show began. I had no doubt about my ability to do a job well, although I realized I would have to excel to be taken seriously. If I were 13 now, I might have become an engineer, but in those days there were very few women engineers, and I was warned about sexual harassment, which would have been difficult to cope with alone. So I chose a career path that was more welcoming to females. What I got from MTM was the idea that a single woman could have an interesting and independent life.
Thanks, I'll have to ask DW if she looked up to that character in the same way. But she did go into a 'traditional' female career (at first).
Few female engineers at that time - tell me about it!
At MegaCorp, there were definitely male/female roles (mid 70's). The routine production assembly line work was almost entirely female. But the ambitious ones also got into management positions on the line, and in our production meetings, they were equals with their male counterparts. I just can't imagine not taking their input with the same weight as their male counterparts. We had a job to do, and they knew their job well - gender wasn't an issue that I ever saw. There were few if any female development engineers when I started, but not that long after there definitely were some. I really don't know if they faced any discrimination problems, I never saw it. And being female, they were noticed, I think it probably helped them. But of course, there are jerks out there. Several climbed the management chain (faster than me, because they were better at their job than me!).
Wow, the memories come flooding back. I remember the older guy I worked with, nice guy, quiet, but got along with everyone, was good at his job, went out of his way to teach me the ropes. One day, a young man got hired to work the assembly line with all these females. He said "That's not right, that a woman's job." Now that sounds shocking today, but he was looking at it more from the angle of females generally having better manual dexterity with the small parts they worked with. Stereotyping, yes - but no bad intent.
Not saying things were perfect, like I said, there were a lot of preconceived ideas, and it might have been far worse other places. But I guess with so few woman in these roles, a young girl did need someone to look up to, and that's what the MTM character was for a lot of young women.
-ERD50