Page 13 - 201902 SCA February 2019 Volume 56 Number 1
P. 13

FEBRUARY
                                                                                                          2019









          Graduates”, after all, I thought, what other option
          was there?
          How naïve was I? People, according to https://apath.
          org/63-genders/, can be divided into 63 Genders!

          If the latter advertisement was published today, I am
          sure someone would take offence as it specifically
          excludes those whose gender identity is non-binary.

          This concept of gender fluidity is now so mainstream
          that on Monday October 1 a segment of Fair Go,   This enforced role change for women was a
          a consumer-watch TV program in New Zealand,     significant factor in the granting of suffrage to
          was devoted to a complaint that some retailers   women in most of the World in the inter-war years.
          required their customers to check a box identifying
          themselves as Male or Female when applying for   In our Industry this is best illustrated by the above
          registration on their websites. To quote Fair Go,   photo, which shows women carrying out the task
          “Such straight definitions as male or female no   of painting a Mark IV World War I Tank at the Tank
          longer apply in 2018.”                          Factory in Lincoln, Lincolnshire.

          In Australia such diverse gender considerations   The Memorial outside that factory today, as pictured
          are even more advanced. On October 24, 2018, it   below, also shows that the painting of these tanks
          was widely reported that Tasmania was to be the   was primarily carried out by women.
          “ All women’s issues are to some degree men’s issues and all
            men’s issues are to some degree women’s issues because
            when either sex wins unilaterally both sexes lose.”

            Warren Thomas Farrell – American educator, activist and author of seven books on
            men’s and women’s issues


          first Aussie state to remove gender options on birth
          certificates and parents would have to opt in if
          they wished to have their child’s gender recorded.
          Northern Territories is considering similar moves and
          it was recently reported that the Australian Labour
          Party was considering a policy that they would, when
          in government, pass legislation that would allow a
          minimum of 12 up to a maximum of 33 genders being
          recognised on official government forms.
          If gender is fluid, as these examples of mainstream   During World War II also, women took over many
          action seem to show, and those lobbying for     manufacturing jobs, replacing the men who had
          increased female representation in Industry     been sent to war. Sherwin-Williams factories were no
          genuinely believe this to be so, how can one    exception, as these women running the Kem-Tone®
          determine what the gender makeup of your company   filling line in 1942 illustrates.
          is, or if you have achieved a truly representative
          gender balance in your workforce or at senior levels?  Kem-Tone® was developed as a result of wartime
          The following extracts from historical paint related
          material will give some indication of the changes
          in societal attitude towards gender roles and
          expectations since the beginning of the 20th century.
          The shortage of labour during the World Wars, as men
          were out fighting and dying, led to the employment of
          women in many then traditional male roles.

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