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I've been exposed and/or associated with most everything my tri-county radius can offer: O/O Amish, Joe Wengers, Horning, EMPC, PMC, Hope, plus the various Brethren circles and the "in between" stuff like Charity.

All have a perception in what role a female Anabaptists have in the workplace. Some think they should be limited to certain roles, while others feel the sky is the limit.

My wife worked in a woodshop with all girls/ladies. That was ran by a EPMC family. After that, she also worked at Good's Store back in the day. All her coworkers, for the most part, were Horning girls.

What say ye? Does your fellowship have anything to say on this subject? Do you have an opinion?

Women don’t belong caring for elderly men in a nursing home.
Yet these conservative ran nursing homes dislike hiring men.
Mind you, the same is true in reverse.

Women should not operate heavy machinery while caring for children.
Women should not operate heavy machinery around their due date.

My wife belongs in the kitchen making coffee, I don’t care what the Bible says, she brews for me.

In our culture, it makes little sense for a woman to get a specialized career if she gets married. By the time she is done having children, her education is dated and she will have more trouble utilizing it.
This is more of an opinion, not a stance and obviously, it’s very situational for the married woman.

Most of the career choices I’d deem unacceptable for a woman I would say also equally applies to the male.

I hope you enjoyed this misshapen gender roles experience!

Women have always worked, a deeper question might be "What is the workplace?" or "How did earning power become the accepted evaluation metric of meaningful contribution?"

Growing up on a farm there was no discussion of who was "working", going to a "workplace" or whose labor was more valuable. The division of labor was ad hoc, I saw my Mother drive tractor, milk cows, and feed calves and I saw my father work in the garden and care for small children. Under this type of economy no one was getting a salary.

Industrialization created "the workplace" by moving production into factories and that is when staying in the home became "not working" and any contributions made there were devalued. Possibly the best question to ask is, what is the Anabaptist perception of men leaving home as a place of meaningful work and devoting their lives to economic production in "the workplace"?

steve-in-kville wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2024 6:22 am I've been exposed and/or associated with most everything my tri-county radius can offer: O/O Amish, Joe Wengers, Horning, EMPC, PMC, Hope, plus the various Brethren circles and the "in between" stuff like Charity.

All have a perception in what role a female Anabaptists have in the workplace. Some think they should be limited to certain roles, while others feel the sky is the limit.

My wife worked in a woodshop with all girls/ladies. That was ran by a EPMC family. After that, she also worked at Good's Store back in the day. All her coworkers, for the most part, were Horning girls.

What say ye? Does your fellowship have anything to say on this subject? Do you have an opinion?

Our fellowship doesn't have anything to say about women's roles in the workplace. But then again we don't have any women that are in the workplace, working in questionable roles. I think if women who have no children and are capable of doing a job, let them do it. We have neighbors whose, 5ft petite daughter drives dump truck. She is married, but has no children. And on another note I had a friend tell me years ago, that she doesn't like to go to the local hardware store, Paul B, because it is a man's store with only men working there. That never bothered me, but in the recent years they have employed quite a few women. I especially appreciated the input of a woman when I was picking paint colors.

Our fellowship does encourage women to stay home after having children.

I don't have an issue with women working alongside men. Keep it professional and it'll be fine.

Put women in mid/upper management, then I'd have something to say.... it never ends well

steve-in-kville wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2024 9:53 am I don't have an issue with women working alongside men. Keep it professional and it'll be fine.

Put women in mid/upper management, then I'd have something to say.... it never ends well

I worked for a company where the president was female. I had no problem with her. Pretty much all the upper management was female. Mid level I had one female, 2 males. One guy was great, no problem with the female. The other guy was really bad. Causes numerous problems for me and the other nurses.
My current job the supervisor is female, she also is very capable and I have no problem with her. In my limited experience, I have never had issues with females outside of my military experience.
Males… they don’t like having challenges to their authority over me even though it’s laid out very clearly where my authority supersedes theirs. That is where I’ve specifically had conflict. I’ve had issues with female coworkers and male coworkers over mostly practice related disagreements.

Soloist wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2024 10:04 am

steve-in-kville wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2024 9:53 am I don't have an issue with women working alongside men. Keep it professional and it'll be fine.

Put women in mid/upper management, then I'd have something to say.... it never ends well

I worked for a company where the president was female. I had no problem with her. Pretty much all the upper management was female. Mid level I had one female, 2 males. One guy was great, no problem with the female. The other guy was really bad. Causes numerous problems for me and the other nurses.
My current job the supervisor is female, she also is very capable and I have no problem with her. In my limited experience, I have never had issues with females outside of my military experience.
Males… they don’t like having challenges to their authority over me even though it’s laid out very clearly where my authority supersedes theirs. That is where I’ve specifically had conflict. I’ve had issues with female coworkers and male coworkers over mostly practice related disagreements.

Perhaps all my experiences involved raging feminist that believed "whatever a man can do, I can do better."