[cercis]

It's very hard as a woman to get hired for a job that is considered risky. Employers look at you and see "pregnancy' and "lawsuit". I finally gave up on the whole forestry proposition because I found that I would have to spend about 15 years working seasonal jobs at $8/hr just to be considered for a full time job. I had to prove that I wasn't going to get pg and quit (this is after I beat my head at it for a while, I didn't believe the other women at first).

I realized that I wasn't going to delay my family for 15 years and live hand-to-mouth for that long, never knowing what I was going to do for the 5-6 months that I was not employed by the USDA Forest Service.

I could, probably, have gone to work for private companies. I looked at them but I found their slash and burn philosophy atrocious (so, maybe a man would have been less idealistic).

So I dropped forestry and studied for a different career. DH, however, is still doing forestry and gets jobs I would never have even been interviewed for.

Risky jobs are denied most women. It's a fact of life for many, many women. I know there are exceptions, but they are the exception. My experience is the rule (and I say this after having spoken to hundreds of women and doing my research on gender breakdowns).