Dirty Jobs

Some links contravailing the narrative about women and dirty jobs:

• "Agency 'a man's world': Women sewer workers sue DEP over unfair treatment"
• "City tunnel worker sues over sex bias" 
• "The pay's OK but the hours stink: Pair become Britain's first female SEWAGE apprentices"
• "Daughters of the Mountain: Women Coal Miners in Central Appalachia"
• Women coal miners in early industrial Britain 

I came across these in another discussion elsewhere. Not that these aren't real, but they're far from routine, and still lack evidence that women are either currently knocking at the door of such opportunities, or have in the past in large numbers in the absence of better prospects. (The link on coal mining particularly is interesting, inasmuch as it was used as propaganda against women in such jobs.) Men still form the vast majority of the labor force in difficult, dirty jobs; and in the case of the first two, it's a matter of an arguable jackpot situation, depending on the damages sought. Certainly, the commentariat is remarkably absent in these matters. One does not see, for example, a Jessica Valenti demanding there be more female coal miners, or an Amanda Marcotte stumping for more men in the veterinary medicine field. Always, it is STEM fields, because

1. Science is important
2. Women must do important things
3. Women must be scientists

even if "you go first" applies.