>And there's still no reason for any glass ceiling at
>all. The argument seems to be that people in general
>won't accept anything out of the ordinary - but 15%
>isn't that out of the ordinary! If it was "female
>warrior, never heard of one of them", then maybe. But
>"female warrior, yes, out of the 20 warriors I know, 3
>are female" - well, that's hardly something to get
>worried about, is it? And of the 20 weavers we know, 3
>are male, too.
We know there isn't a glass ceiling in Heortling society. Much decision making is at ring level and just about every ring described has some representatives of both sexes. Even in Esrolia there will be someone to represent the men, probably the only male but that's a better proportion than women have in the UK parliament. I'm sure there are some clans which are so patriarchal that there is a lone woman on the ring and a tendency to only consult her on "women's matters". Perhaps the Red Cow are one of them in which case the Lunars are going to be able to recruit by appealing to women.
>From my experience women brought up in a rural society are
far more assertive and capable of standing up for themselves
than modern ones. And men from that background accept it. It
seems to be something to do with a recognition that work isn't
just being paid to do something for someone else. I can see
a Heortling woman listening to a Lunar feminist and thinking
"You let men get away with *that*!"
I'm not convinced that the 15% taking non-traditional roles will result in three warriors out of twenty being women and even less that three weavers in twenty will be men. IMO a lot of the 15% will be female lawspeakers following Lhankor Mhy, male healers following Chalana Arroy and similar. The case of weavers is even more difficult, the occupation is so tied into Ernaldan magic that a male weaver is inevitably going to be Nandani. And previous discussions have indicated that Nandani are rare.
A possible exception is in the cities where a male weaving cult could have been imported by the Lunars. After all the Lunar administrators and officers will want the fabrics they are used to, not the local barbarian ones. So we have the Red Goddess opening up a female occupation to men.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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