jobs. But he also added that “not that they are welcome either; I don’t mind them, but the guys in other schools will hire a women only if they can not even find a dead body.” I asked, “can a woman ever become the chief janitor?” The answer was a plain and clear “never.”The cafeteria was a completely different story. Practically all the workers in the cafeterias of all schools are women. I asked the head of the food service department in one high school, who I thought was a fair-minded lady, why it was that all cafeteria workers are women. She said men do not generally apply; cooking and serving food is a women’s job, they think. She also added, “ We don’t want them anyway, you can hardly find one who is not sloppy and dirty.” But I observed, and she agreed, that there is no injustice involved. There is no built-in obstacle for men to be hired or promoted in food service.Leaving the support staff level and getting to the heart of the educational enterprise, we come to the teaching staff. Instantly, one notices that the elementary schools are mostly staffed by women teachers. However, the administrators by and large are men. The South Bend School Corporation, for example, has approximately 25 elementary schools. Of these, twenty of them have men principals while nearly 70% of teachers are women. I asked one of the male principals why there is such a disparity between male/female ratios of teachers and administrators in elementary schools. He said that it is the “mother thing,” women are more suited to teach little children and they are attracted towards the elementary age kids, that is as far as teaching is concerned. The administration, however, is another matter. There you need men. They, according to him, are better organizers, disciplinarians, and of course father figures. A woman principal had a different view. For her it is the “...
