Making Choices!: Women in Non-Traditional Jobs

Making Choices! is aimed at young adolescent girls. The intent is to get them to think about many kinds of work while there is still time for them to choose, train for, and / or go directly into work they want to do rather than the ghettoized jobs, most of them clerical, for which girls are still too often streamed. The authors have set a difficult agenda for themselves. They have succeeded admirably.

The book is well designed, plushly produced, and full of photographs. Heavy stock and spiral binding allow for repeated readings. The text consists largely of interviews with women who are in non-traditional jobs; it is well placed, clear, and presented in a non-threatening manner.

The women range in age from late teens to mid-fifties. Some have spent their entire working lives in their current jobs, others have done many things. Some of the jobs require PhDs, but more require at most high school and a training course of some kind. Occupations include millwright mechanic, union organizer, car salesperson, jockey, TV cameraperson, transit driver, and meteorologist. The women here obviously represent a wide range of talents, temperaments, and inclinations. The one thing they all have in common is the courage to be who they are in a world that would rather squeeze them into a predetermined mould.

Sheila Amato conducted the interviews. Pat Staton coordinated the project, commissioned the photographs, and provided the exhaustive resource list at the end of the book. Its 20 pages include associations, books, programs, community groups, films and videos, government programs, kits, newsletters and journals, pamphlets, posters, private organizations and community programs, reports, and speakers’ bureaus. The list provides a tremendous scope for the student, teacher, or parent who wants to go further. Though the main text is largely, but by no means exclusively, Toronto-centred, the resource list is thoroughly national.

Pat Staton is the Co-ordinator of the Centre for Women’s Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. She is also a publisher, historian, and gift-shop owner / manager. Co-author Sheila Amato is a former secretary turned heavy-equipment operator. Their commitment to this subject and their qualifications to produce this kind of book are evident on every page.