Maybe I'm overthinking this- now there's a surprise- but I would have chosen the word "scared" before I chose dumb. I always point out to people that "yes" women can work on bikes and cars and use all kinds of tools but it's not a big deal because our grandmothers helped build Liberty ships. There is a difference though. Everybody pretty much assumed, rightly, that the majority of the women would quit their masculine jobs when the war ended and the men who'd been away fighting would take their jobs back and the women would go home and raise the kids and have dinner on the table by 6. But that's not the case anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these guys, if they really put their brains in gear, would think "Hey! That chick is doing a guy's job. That assembler's job should belong to a dude. What the hell?! Is a chick gonna be changing my oil at Jiffy Lube next? Where does this end?"

Because the other female assemblers and mechanics and IT workers and I *do* know how to use tools. (Hurray! We've caught up with the chimpanzees!) And we are not just working until a man comes along to take the job or to take care of us. We're working to support ourselves. Which means we'll have our own money and maybe more money than he has and that means we won't have to say "Pretty please" unless we want to. And if women don't need him for money and they don't need him to fix sh*t then what, the poor schmuck may be wondering, do they need him for and what's going to happen to him and the other guys when the women have taken all the jobs?

As I said, I doubt anyone is thinking this hard about the whole thing. I definitely question whether any of my customers would have the inclination and/or capacity to do so and that's probably unfair of me. Some of the guys on this thread have mentioned their possible obsolescence in what I hope was a joking way. I believe most of them are secure and- dare I say- enlightened enough to realize they have more value to women than their ability to best us in micturition trials. I can't have gotten the only good one.