Question:
you dredged up a post of mine from several weeks ago (12/16)
in which I said I would bet money that no one could produce evidence
of 100 women requesting the right to work in mines. You called me lazy
and sexist and implied that I would not honor my bet.
I told you that I would and offered to bet you $100. But I'm not
going to sit still and wait for you to go to the library and make
sure that you can win BEFORE you accept the bet.
Answer:
This may come as news to you, Michael, but I never even SAW your post. Just as
I do not expect you to see and read every post I write, just as I expect you to
have a life, I have a life, too. I do not read every post that you write, I do
not even always see every post that is a response to mine. In fact, I have
searched deja. news for this post, and haven't found it yet, which is why I am
replying on aol, which only allows posting to one website, rather than deja.
which would allow me to respond to soc. men and alt. feminism.
Maybe it will show up tomorrow, and I can respond again to Soc. men, as well,
so don't think I am being thoughtless if I do so.
Can anyone take this up, or is it limited to kavking?
Was there any other proviso on the statement, like the women were not given
due consideration? If all you want is proof of 100 female applications to
work in mines, I can do that by trotting off to the filing system for
several hours (yuk!!).
I don't want any money from you though. Just beware, I don't know what the
situation is in the US, but here in Oz there are heaps of women working in
mines, underground and open-pit. 100 requests for mine work from women is
easy to prove, probably just from the records of one of my companies let
alone if I went outside to the large set-ups.
So show me documentation of 100 women asking for the right
to work in a coal mine, and you will have won the bet.
I'll send a check anywhere you say.
Oh yes, I realised that. The only reason I came back is to correct a
misconception. Most of the companies I contract to are either gold and
nickel miners or chiefly exploration companies, most of the coal mines are
on the other side of the country. WA is the gold mining state, the Oz
national anthem's words "golden soil" refer to the wealth of the goldfields.
They receive applications for mine work on a daily basis from both men and
women (the mining and exploration workforce is very mobile). I did a quick
check of one companies records and came up with 56 applications for work
(from women) over the last three years (record limit) as opposed to 230 odd
from men. I only included those asking for mining (mine engineers, mining
geologists, shot firers, underground equipment operators etc) or heavy
haulage jobs (within the mines).
Of course none of these people were "demanding the right" to work the mines,
they were just asking for jobs, the men and the women. I also realise I have
found only 56, but have only checked one small exploration company so far.
How would you like proof? The only conclusive method is probably by fax. If
you provide me with a fax number I can fax front page applications with
names and any other revealing details deleted, or will you accept faxed
letters from my MDs? This is a manual job (the deleting names and faxing)
and I will have to spread it over a few days to a week.
