A woman succeeds
A woman has been chosen as a grave-digger at a cemetery near Florence, Italy, after all 10 male candidates for the job fainted during an exhumation test. (Manchester Guardian)
Now that should give a boost to the status of women proponents, providing, of course, that she receives the same pay as a man for doing the same work.
Digging graves could be a busy occupation in Florence, which has a population near the half-million mark. The news item didn’t reveal how many cemeteries there are in that city.
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If the new grave-digger has a husband to feed before he leaves for work and a clutch of kids to bundle off to school, she’ll be limited in time she can devote to excavation.
When one reads the history of Florence, the battles with the forces of Pisa and Arezzo, the wars between the pro-papal and pro-imperial factions and the rule by the Medicis, one can see grave-digging in the past was a growth industry. Fortunately, today Italy is relatively peaceful and so the female grave-digger would only be faced with those who die of disease and accidents.
From what I’ve seen, the way Italians race around in their Fiats they’re not too concerned with ending up six feet under, whether the hole is dug by a male or a female.
Anyway, I thought we should record the fact that a woman has successfully won her way into a job that was formerly a male bastion by sturdily refusing to be fazed by a messy exhumation.
Some people acquire fame by rising above their fellows.
She got international attention by heading in the opposite direction.
