Gender Assumptions

Eighty pounds. I knew the sand mix concrete we were using to re-skin the concrete in our basement came in eighty pound bags. What I don't think my body realized was how eighty pounds actually feels, from getting it off the shelf and onto the cart at the warehouse home improvement chain, getting it off the cart and into the back of the truck in the parking lot, and getting it back out of the truck and down to the basement at home. Somehow that sixty-pound backpack is so much more manageable than an eighty-pound bag of concrete mix.

B went alone to the home repair warehouse chain to get a few bags for the test area. A number of employees saw B hauling bags of concrete off the shelf and onto a cart but they all quickly turned off the aisle, probably to avoid helping him. That $7-10/hour wage apparently doesn't compel such heavy lifting. (Can't say I blame them.)

When B, K, and I went back to Home Depot to get nine more bags, B climbed up on one of the mobile staircases to start hauling bags off the chin-high shelf, and K and I took turns taking the bag from him and putting it on the cart. A young male employee came and helped after K and I struggled with three bags and quickly worked with B to haul up our cart.

Now it turns out we need another six bags or so. (Yes, we severely underestimated our coverage needs, but concrete coverage is the least of the lessons learned by this project.)

Time for strategy.

We hypothesize that if a single female is trying to haul concrete, the employees will help her out. Maybe even help get it from the cart and into the truck. We plan to test this hypothesis. I'll keep you posted.