Female contingency brain

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-24/coronavirus-vaccine-rollout-and-the-female-contingency-brain/100088856?fbclid=IwAR3be4LgSwA1YIq3S8pW7moxyzMVMx9GwYpbgfaeDFSbQSxyMbfWyu4pDKI

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this article.

On the one hand, I completely agree. - look at the volunteers who run the cwa scone and tea rooms at the Easter show. Literally 50k of scones in 10 days. And those women who run canteens for carnivals and dance comps. Three or four days and food for all. Hard work, but mass feeding etc.

But I’m also a bit furious. 1. Why are we using our skills like this in the volunteer workforce, doing what are considered trivial things. And 2. I think the reason we have contingency plans is because of men. Because they don’t take us seriously. Cause they interrupt our plans with their important needs/demands. Cause our suggestions are not listened to in meetings so we have to find another way or know so much that we have to advocate in a very strong way to get anything done.

I find that my female contingency brain is highly appreciated in my workplace, but then I also have the worlds most awesome female boss (who has a truly formidable fcb) and I work in local government, where fcb is both necessary and valued....

That was in part an incredibly patronizing read with the examples all being care based but I agree with the principle of how organised many (not all) women are and the disaster of the rollout.

If someone ever told me 'the lack of women in leadership was that they could get a plate of pea's and chops of the table at the same time but women lacked vision' I would let loose at them!

While there are things not to like about the article, I think it's correct in its overall theory.

Generally speaking, men plan one thing because they can't conceive of failure and even if they fail nobody ever seems to have a problem with that.. Women plan everything with workarounds and escape routes because we have to. Because we have to be better than men to be taken seriously, and because we recognise that if WE don't have the backup plan then nobody does. Because we recognise that if we don't have a backup or workaround we're often screwed because men are dangerous when things don't go to plan. Not necessarily physically dangerous, but how many times have we seen women take the fall for a man's fuck up? Happens all the time.

Compare Jacinda Ardern and Scott Morrison on the handling of the pandemic. Case fucking closed.

Reminds me of one of my favourite quotes from Anne’s House of dreams

“The Glen St. Mary church wouldn't have been built to this day," went on Miss Cornelia, ignoring Captain Jim, "if we women hadn't just started in and took charge. We said we meant to have a church, if the men meant to quarrel till doomsday, and we were tired of being a laughing-stock for the Methodists. We held one meeting and elected a committee and canvassed for subscriptions. We got them, too. When any of the men tried to sass us we told them they'd tried for two years to build a church and it was our turn now. We shut them up close, believe me, and in six months we had our church. Of course, when the men saw we were determined they stopped fighting and went to work, man-like, as soon as they saw they had to, or quit bossing. Oh, women can't preach or be elders; but they can build churches and scare up the money for them."

Articles like that make me angry. I know it’s an opinion piece, but where is the scientific link to a study of women’s vs men’s brains and thought patterns? She should could have thrown in at least one link to a multitasking study, I’m sure there has been a few.

Anyway, it’s likely true, and probably learned. Because we have to fit our lives around other peoples, mainly our children’s, lives. Children are unpredictable, anyone that’s ever tried to get out the door with a baby in a clean outfit knows that. Cue vomit or poo explosion, so we learn quickly to allocate extra time and pack extra outfits.

Men can do this too though, given the right learning experiences. My DH is pretty good at it, but his back up plans aren’t the same as mine. I’ll pack 2 lots of extra clothes and a third in the car, his back up plan will be 1 spare set and worse case to buy something on the run or just come home again.

The vaccine rollout definitely needs improvement, but I feel the states are taking charge now, like they did for quarantine, so there are good people out there, men and women. The problem is our current federal government, they suck.

I think it is not dealing with the fallout that makes the difference.

I hate bringing stuff back to motherhood but face it, when the kids are hangry who deals. When the kids are cold who deals. When the family starts falling apart, who deals.

I'm sorry I failed, I'll leave, doesn't stop the baby crying. Etc etc.

How many centuries have women being doing this?

Stick a man in that situation (with the responsibility to fix and no one to bail them) and I'm sure they would learn to do it.

I'm guessing the good military commanders are good at it. Experienced bush fire fighters.

But the Scomos of this world never have to deal with it. He is allowed to say someone else let me down and walk away.

While everyone else scrambles to work around it.

Around the world we were short of masks last year. Women turned on the sewing machines and started sewing. Men and women turned on the 3D printers and came up with ear protectors, oxygen valves, etc.

Maybe it should be a maker's led revolution.

I don't doubt for one minute that men CAN do this. It's not a difference in brain function. It's a difference in perception, in necessity, in commitment, in responsibility. It's learned, and it can be learned by everyone.

In all my volunteering on and off over the years I have volunteered with just as many women as men

I'm not surprised really. For example, my brothers will say it only takes 30 mins to get there.

They always forget the time it takes to park, get out of the car pay the metre, the walk to the venue assuming all that goes accordingly.

It doesn't matter how quickly my mum tried to get ready all the years, we were always waiting in the car for 10mins for them.

There’s also what men do at a barbecue as opposed to women

Aussie BBQ procedure:

1 - The woman buys the food.

2 - The woman takes a cold beer from the fridge and takes it to her husband who is talking about footy to his mates, and then she makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert.

3 - The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - and gives him another cold beer.

4 - The woman remains outside the compulsory three meter exclusion zone where the discussion of cricket, footy, cars, fishing, and other manly bonding activities can take place without the interference of the woman.

5 - The man places the meat and snags on the BBQ plate.

6 - The woman goes inside to organise the plates and cutlery.

7 - The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is looking great. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he turns the meat

8 - The man takes the meat and snags off the plate and hands it to the woman.

9 - The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces, and brings them to the table, with more beer for the man and his friends..

10 - After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.

11 - Everyone praises the man and thanks him for his cooking efforts that made this barbie a great success.

12 - The man asks the woman how she enjoyed ' her night off ', and, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women.

And in all my years I've seen time and again that women do the majority of volunteer work and even if a few men turn up it's the women who organise it and make it work. Lost count of the number of times men turn the sausages while women do all the actual work.

ETA: lol that the 'BBQ procedure' posted as I was writing this illustrates it perfectly.

I don’t think there’s anything less valuable about unpaid care and volunteer work, except that it’s feminised and diminished in value.

An God forbid the woman dares suggest she do the BBQ instead of the men.

#sickofburntmeat

I've finally trained my husband how not to charcoal everything.

My fil on the other hand, and then my uncles inlaws. The horror when I suggested how about you let me do it.

That BBQ scenario is every BBQ in my house growing up. Along with verbal abuse towards my mum if anything was forgotten or she was too slow fetching him something.

I did cat rescue for a year. Predominantly woman run, predominantly woman doing the work. We had 2 blokes in our group which was atypical, and they were both partners of woman in the group. They were treated like saints just for turning up.

So I guess we are back to the $64 question again.

How to we make Scomo et al deal with the repercussions, and teach them to plan for the future?

On the home front, I'm trying to step back and let the consequences happen so hopefully DH and DS do learn to respond. DH tends to not plan in the first place so that's another problem. DS is a work in progress and I'm hopeful on that front. DS is old enough to cook for himself, and can run up to the shops and buy his own ingredients. So at least they won't starve.

In all my volunteering on and off over the years I have volunteered with just as many women as men

Decades of happy volunteer work here and the only scenario where men equalled or outweighed women when it came to showing up was a working bee or school council where they turned up to the AGM expecting a position of power.

It very clearly irked some of them when that did not happen for them. Some men seemed to be butt hurt when they were behind the scenes workers and not being recognised for their 'sacrifices'.

Women were the leading force at both our children's primary and secondary schools. It was common in the 90s and early 2000s and it was awesome modelling for the kids when it was obvious they got the job done well.

Most of these women were also combining working out of the home and volunteering so the work factor could not be used as an excuse for not being able to be present, particularly when meetings were held at all times of the day and evening to try and accommodate all ( men ) who wanted pitch in to participate.

Obviously I have no idea whether this is still the case but I suspect so, nothing seems to have changed too much in that regard. Women's contingency brain can be both an asset and a curse IMO.

It's definitely a thing but it's not a "brain" thing; it's a learned behaviour. For all genders.