R: (…) I chose Civil Engineering and I got in the university, and in a universe of 120 students we were about 20 women. (…) so, it was a very low percentage. In the end of the graduation degree, I don’t know how many men, but only 3 girls got the diploma.
R: Yes, of course, all this was again related to my family. Yes. Me and my husband, we had a family business: we were offered by the (city municipality’s) social department to deliver thermoses with warm lunch to elderly people.
R: This is a story that I’ve told many times and that I will tell again because it had a great influence on me, or it impressed me. Specifically, it is…I’m thinking of a time when I was unemployed. I was looking for a job.
R: Well, the most obvious example that I could think of is, was in my employment. I work part time at the university campus, in the supermarket on campus there is quite a clear gender division in labour.
R: Well, I was working on (name school) as a teacher there. And I have to say it was influenced by the fact that I was the youngest teacher and the rest, they were these old male elephants, right? And then in fact, there was one female teacher around 60 who left at the time, she quit.
R: And then last summer I went into my boss and told him that I was planning to study (name part time university course). I was looking to progress from just being a bloody trainee… And I asked if they could support this? And he, he refused that. He didn’t really give me any reason for it.
R: (The other experience) is about my job at present, as I was hired at a Research and Training Centre here (city’s name) in 2009 , with a one year fixed term contract, with the possibility of transforming it into an open ended one, as it happened to all colleagues who were hired before me, so when
R: Well, I am, I feel a bit unusual because, as I've said here, I work part time at the moment. I've been doing working part time, I guess, for about 18 months. My wife works full time; we came to that decision basically for child care.
I: But INSTITUTION 1 in general, as far as I remember, was men´s organization? What did women do there?
I: (…)<br />Then you say after this that it changed during the 60’s, I mean how could you see that in relation to…?
R: (…) But there was another factor that contributed to this change in my life; the children were growing fast and more and more money was needed.
R: (...) The working conditions for a naval officer or sailor, in the merchant marine, hardly let us imagine that it would be a job suited for women. At least for a simple reason: we had to spend months at sea, and very few days ashore, in family.