Women in Unusual Jobs

Dina is a disc jockey in a nightclub in London. A few years ago she thought her future was in tennis. For a while, she trained promising young players on a full-time basis, but one day a neighbour who was a radio producer took her down to his radio station and she became involved in the music scene. 'There are lots of late nights for me, but surprisingly the job doesn't offer much in the way of a social life. I don’t have any real contact with the large numbers of people I meet,' she says. She particularly likes the fact that she now only works four hours a day. 'The one thing I resent is having to appear cheerful all the time even when I feel down,' she says. She hopes to be able to produce her own records one day but has given up her ambition of going to college. 'You can't do everything in life,' she says.

Angela is a clown; she paints her face white and wears funny clothes to entertain people. She decided clowning was the job she wanted after seeing a clown show. 'I said that was it. It involved no talking, and that suited me down to the ground,' she says. She soon realised that women only introduced the act and were on stage for a few minutes because it was considered a job for men. 'That is changing now,' she says. 'But from the beginning, I decided to call myself Chris on the programmes instead of Angela so that the audience don't know if I'm a man or a woman.' Angela had to choose between family and work. 'I liked my work too much to think of children,' she says, 'and I have no regrets.' She says the secret of her success is that she is a very happy person, which is what you need to be a good clown.

Claire works on a cruise liner, a floating luxury hotel which is her home for eight months of the year. She is the ship's secretary and has responsibility for all information customers may need while on board, as well as acting as secretary to the captain. 'He is very demanding but I have no complaints from him,' she says. Losing touch with the real world for so long is no problem because the ship's officers can take advantage of the activities provided for the entertainment of passengers. 'I've made many lasting friendships here,' she says, 'we get customers of all ages and backgrounds.' Her previous work experience as a Personal Assistant to a manager prepared her for the demands of this job. It was better paid than her present job but she gave it up because she had always liked the idea of working on a ship. 'The only disadvantage is that there are constant time changes when you go around the world and it makes you feel physically unwell,' she says.

Dolly has worked in a chocolate factory for the past twenty years. 'I was nearly sixteen when I joined,' she says. 'My parents both worked there at the time, so it had become a kind of family tradition. My first job was as an assistant and I've since climbed the ladder to become customer relations manager.' Her present job involves a number of responsibilities, from performing taste tests for all chocolates to ensure their flavour is the same, to organising events for retired employees, including parties and excursions to the seaside. 'I like to have variety in my job,' she says, 'any comments from customers will be forwarded to me to deal with. Of course, I'll never meet them personally but they will all get a written response from me.' She admits that at the moment she is finding it difficult to concentrate on the degree course in marketing she started last year, but is confident she will finish it by June.