Start Date: July 2024

THEN

It was 1981. I was a senior in an engineering program. There weren’t many woman in what is now called STEM. I think we were about 10%.  But all in all I would say that I liked most of the guys and didn’t feel particularly excluded. There were a few unpleasant professors. But then they were generally unpleasant to everyone.

It was 1981. A former fellow student was in town. He took me for a ride around our DC area campus. There was something on the radio about Reagan being shot. I guess the idea of assassination was so far from my mind that I assumed it might be an auto dealer named Fred Reagan. But later I realized it was the President. I am not sure if I had a TV but at some point I saw the video of the event and the lightening fast response of the towering secret service agents, shielding him and hurling him into a car so quickly many struggled to know what happened.

SINCE THEN

In the following decades I was involved at various times with the Society of Women Engineers, the Association for Women in Science, and generally interested in organizations promoting opportunities for women in science and technology. But over time I found some women’s groups to be less appealing for a variety of reasons.

I still deem it useful to encourage women to consider science. But I never thought it should be something to push on a budding librarian or economist. It is a choice that shouldn’t be impeded. But if there are never 50% or more females in NASA or CEOs of the tech companies I won’t mind, as long as it is a natural reflection of what women want to do and can do. The NBA is dominated by black athletes. The Dominican Republic is a huge source of athletes for major league baseball. They are passionate about the sport. Part of diversity is that different groups will show up in different arenas in different numbers.

In recent years I have visited my local police and fire stations. It is rare to see female firefighters. While not a job for sumo wrestlers, as some agility is required, it is a vocation that demands superior physical strength and endurance. Unusually powerful women may keep up, but they won’t be the strongest members of a crew that needs to be able to carry bodies, and move heavy materials. So I support their presence to the extent that it doesn’t lessen the performance of the unit.

With the police, where morale and recruitment are in dire straits, as many as half of the LAPD rookies in any given class are female. Their jobs do involve conflict management, handling weapons, and reading a crowd. Perhaps women will excel there. But many times body mass is a major factor. So I wonder if the female officers will get beaten and overtaken more often, or will they have to resort to lethal force more often? There is no doubt they are needed, as they are filling the gaps of mass vacancies. But I am still not yearning for a time when they are a majority.

NOW

It is 2024. July. Last weekend another young man shot another President. The shooter was killed so we won’t hear his story. An attendee was also killed while providing cover to protect his wife and daughter. Two others are in critical condition, and the former President survived only due to a last second turn of the head.

The head of the secret service was a woman with a strong commitment to hiring women. The secret service detail included a number of women. One seemed to initially cower behind the president while the larger men dove on top of him. There is audio of a female asking

“What do we do? What do we do? Where do we go?” There was a woman who had difficulty holstering her weapon. All of that would seem to be training issues. The whole thing took much longer than the Reagan event. I still admire them. I would never sign up for the job. But there seemed to be a lack of direction and choreography.

However what very much stuck out in the photos was the petite female, now doing her all to protect her asset. She leaned in and wrapped her arms around a man who was roughly a foot taller and much more massive. His right arm draped over her head. She had her heart in it. I believe she was then ready to take the bullet if needed, but reality got in the way. A shot to the upper body or head of her protectee would have been well beyond her.  It looked more like a young girl trying to help her Dad get into the car, as opposed to the 1981 behemoths who hurled Ronald Reagan into an adjacent and moving limousine.

Equity I suppose. But?

THEN AND NOW