John Callen wrote:

     "I have recently been forced into contact and conversations with the
     generation of preservationists before me and the generation after me
     within a week.  The good news is that those Old Farts may have been
     making it up as they went along, but the got the big stuff right and
     they taught us the right priorities.  The better news is that the next
     generation has less to make up, more to build on and is better
     prepared.

     The weird part is that at least in architecture, they seem to be
     disproportionately female.  How did that happen?  And what does it
     mean?  Is it typical of your gender to be motivated by what the built
     record will say about us, and mine that I am first drawn to the
     problem solving, the dirt, the danger and the beer?  And does it
     matter?"

     It seems to me that while the young preservation people are VERY
     disproportionally female, the old guys are much more likely to be
     guys.  Of course the old generation for me is probably a lot older
     than it is for John!  It seems like in the sixties, there were a lot
     more male movers and shakers at the National Trust and in the
     government, though I don't know about the architects and/or craftsmen.
      My vague impression is that most of the people carrying placards,
     tying themselves to trees, and lying down in front of bulldozers were
     women, but I'm not sure about that.  I think a lot of academic
     preservation programs are almost entirely female now.

     I have always wondered why that should be true.

     Marilyn