Male and Female

>So far, none of the three new guards in California's state prison system for men have been assigned to conduct "skin searches" of nude prisoners for contraband. Nor have they been asked to work in the prison shower rooms or in the adjustment or segregation areas where men thought to be troublemakers are confined. That day may come, however, despite the fact that all three of the guards are women. Prison officials say that they "aren't making any concessions as to what these women might be called upon to do" in an emergency. All three--Joyce Zink at Folsom and Wilma Schneider and Bonni Briggs at San Quentin--were hired after the California Personnel Board ruled that women must be considered for guard jobs. Though the three are the first of their sex to serve as guards, they are not the first to hold "correctional" jobs in California's male prisons: for three years, the state has employed a few women as supervisors in visiting rooms and at the front gate.

>"Women are inferior to men in physiological performance," and "the imbalance between wages and productivity registers itself earlier among women than men." These remarkable statements were included in a Tokyo high-court decision upholding an earlier compulsory retirement age for women than for men. The case in question began four years ago when Miyo Nakamoto was discharged from her job as a draftswoman by the Nissan Motor Company Ltd. when she became 50, the firm's mandatory retirement age for women. Mrs. Nakamoto sued to stay on until 55, the age at which male employees must leave. At the loss of her suit, Mrs. Nakamoto called the decision "preposterous." Two female news commentators rallied to her support. One thought the decision "outlandish," and another asserted indignantly, "Some Japanese women in their 60s are far better than men of their age in physiological performance. We cannot accept such a ruling." But, in a country where the liberation movement is still just a gleam in women's eyes, there was little else they could do.

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