A Look at Sexual Harassment, Part 2

Copyright Sandy Long

A little more history...and more of the root of the problem.

As many of you know, women have been involved in trucking since the wheel was invented, but until the early to mid 70's, most ran with their husbands or worked with their husbands to run the company with a few exceptions. The one exception to women working with their spouses was during WWII when women came into all industries to fill positions left empty by the men who were called to serve in the military...then women drove trucks alone all over the country.

Along with the feminist movement came the Equal Opportunity Employment Act which put in place (though not officially) hiring quotas for women and minorities. These quotas probably did more to hurt women who were entering the male dominated industry of trucking more than any other one thing.

Again, as most of you know, male truckers were/are mostly very traditional thinking type of people...males had their places as did women...and women belonged at home with a man to provide for them. Most men did not understand that women were entering the trucking industry to find adequate wages to support themselves and their children mostly due to being single or divorced. Therefore, many men thought that a woman was taking a job away from a man who was supporting their own families just because 1. they were burning their bras, 2. because they could.

The hiring quota system was poorly managed. If they would have only limited the quotas to entry level...newbee...positions, most men would of been more accepting of women becoming truckers. As it was though, companies were hiring student women drivers over experienced male driver applicants...this created an un-level hiring situation and a lot of resentment. Combine the fact that men didn't understand why women wanted to drive truck with the resentment of the quota system and you end up with a whirlwind that we are still riding in some fashion today.

Trucking companies too were not too happy about hiring women under the quota laws.

Trucking back then was a very hard life. Many loads were hand loaded or unloaded, trucks were not designed for women and most did not even have power steering...one really needed to be strong physically to drive the truck. Furthermore, a lot of companies required that their drivers do some sorts of mechanical repairs; these might even include changing out a tire which is not for weaker people to do. In addition, trucking companies were worried about the safety of women while on the road without a man to protect them. Then too most trucking companies were owned and managed by men with women only holding minor secretarial/accounting roles. Of course, everyone was buying into that old saw that 'women were too emotional once a month' to be trusted to be able to handle the stress of driving.

Perception of the women who were entering trucking was and is still skewed...even by other non driving women. A friend of mine who started driving in 1973 as a union driver had the union go out on strike because she worked as a driver...and no, it was not the male drivers who had the problem...it was their wives who didn't like the idea of their husbands working with a female driver so the wives forced their husbands to strike...they didn't get her fired though. Today, wives have a problem with their husbands training female students so the student has to wait longer to be trained.

You have to understand all of what was involved back then in the feminist movement and some of you may not be old enough to remember. Women were standing up for their rights to do anything that men could do, including be free sexually. Oh My! Women who were married or ultra religious didn't understand or accept this concept as it went against what they believed themselves, so felt threatened by 'these bad women who wanted freedom even to have sex without shame'. Unfortunately, some men too believed that all women who were entering the industry were looking for 'free love' rights too. This is another fallacy that has followed women forward to today.

Trucking companies were not innocent in their mis-conception about women who wanted to drive and sex either...many companies refused to hire non-married mixed gender teams, some still do...and didn't want to have the company's reputation corrupted by sexually active single women. They worried too that single women would cause sexual problems among the male drivers...things like broken dating relationships or competition for a woman's favors. On the other hand, if a woman wasn't sexually free and was not with a man, they were perceived as lesbians and OMG! who wanted a lesbian representing their company as a driver!!! Tsk, Tsk...sad but true.

Are you seeing a little clearer not only how far we have come, but also why we are still dealing with some harassment and discrimination even from other women in the industry? Old ideas and perceptions die hard and seem to self perpetuate themselves....kind of like flea eggs...you kill all the fleas, but dern, after a short reprieve, the eggs hatch and there they are again!

Seeing where the problems come from and shedding light on them helps everyone overcome the problems, and find solutions to them.

Again, I will continue this subject further....