Anything You Can Do...

Do you remember the rest of the saying? Anything you can do, I can do better. I'm not sure where it originated from, but in the context of my own mind, it is boys against girls.

I recently purchased a $5 magazine subscription from Amazon for Marie Claire. I can't remember ever reading it before, but I like to have one rolling in every now & again & thought I would give it a try. I mean it is $5 and last year's $5 subscription was awesome {House Beautiful}. I got my first magazine this week & while I haven't read the whole thing, so far, I am not impressed.

I've read a handful of articles & several times I've walked away with a sour taste in my mind. So much of it focuses on women in the workforce & how to be better, get paid more & look better doing it than their male counterparts.

And while I appreciate the thought & good intentions, maybe I don't want to be better, get paid more & look better...okay, I want to look better...than my male counterparts. Maybe I just want to be better than those around me. Why the boys vs. girls angle? To be a woman in the workforce does not mean you have to become like a man or that you have to beat the boys...you just need to be the best at what you do. Doing it how you do it, and if that means using 'girly' techniques, I say go for it.

When I worked for a home builder & had to go to the various cities we were building in to pull permits you bet I'd use 'girl techniques'. And you know what? It worked. My male bosses knew I would & that is half the reason they sent me. And by 'girl techniques' you know what I mean. Bat a few eyelashes, play the dumb blond card if necessary & back it up with some smarts & common sense. And there was the occasional witch with a capital B. Guess what? It works on them. And it works on my husband too.

I get tired of the talk about men & women being equals in all arenas, because frankly, we aren't & we're never are going to be. And the great thing is...that is okay. In fact, it is more than okay. That is how it is supposed to be. I am better at some things & Scot is better at others. So as opposed to fighting it, we embrace it. He pays the bills, I cook dinner. I mow the lawn, he does laundry. It works for us.

So instead of turning into a man in the workforce {which really what does workforce mean?} why don't we embrace our emotional, multi-tasking selves? And instead of fighting for higher quotas for science related fields to accept more women, why don't we make sure we are smarter & more qualified then the people already doing it?

Call me crazy, but when I am going to a doctor for major surgery I want the person that was at the top of his/her class. Not someone that squeaked in because there was a quota to be met. And that goes for industries that are predominately female as well. I remember when I was applying to the College of Education at ASU, if you were a boy applying, it was pretty darn easy to get that acceptance letter, because so few boys applied. As opposed to making it boys against girls why not person against person? And if one gender gets left behind, so be it. May the best man win.

I mean person.