Well, I’ve watched the show a few more times now. Parts of it I played over and over again until I could write down the dialogue. I could post that, if there was a lot of interest. I don’t have all the dialogue, just some of it – about six pages.
I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a lot more to this story than you see at first. You could even argue that the point of the story was to encourage young women to take up engineering as a career choice. It is clear to me, however, that every character in this story has a different opinion about women in the workforce.
Betty's family didn't discourage Betty from being an engineer because it didn't fit her personality. They did so because she was female, and American culture had clear definitions of what kind of work was appropriate for women, and what kind of work was deviant from the norm. For example, the career instructor at the beginning of the episode did not know the girls personally, but still tried to corral them toward "proper" women's jobs like secretarial work. For the career placement instructor, the choice for young women was not whether they should train to be a wife/mother OR train for a career, but rather, which careers were appropriate for women.
You are generalizing when you describe the “career instructor,” Mr. Glover. We only see him talk to two girls, Betty and a ditzy blonde. The ditzy blonde wants a career in “cinema,” and Mr. Glover at first thinks she wants to be in the movies. Turns out she wanted to be an usher in a theater so she could watch for free the latest movies. Previously she had told Betty she would really like to be a ski instructor since they wear such cute clothes. She is obviously not very smart, and her wish to be an usher is obviously not a real career choice. Mr. Glover tries to steer the ditzy blonde to a job more suited to her capabilities, which also happens to be a traditional female job, as a secretary.
When Betty writes that she wants to work on a surveying crew Mr. Glover does absolutely nothing to discourage her from this. He just silently hands her the address where she is to go to report for her practical work experience. You might make something out of the fact that he is not smiling at that time. But you can’t say he has tried to corral her at all, for anything. Saying he tries to corral “them.” i.e. all girls, is not justified by what we see in the story.
Mr. Glover, the guidance counselor, is not a very likeable person. He squints a lot. He is abrupt and impatient with the students. He interrupts them as though they aren’t important people. If we do get the impression that he may have ideas about appropriate careers for women, we are also given the impression that this is the opinion of a person you really wouldn’t like to know. The status or likeability of a character is an important clue to how the audience is supposed to think about what is said or done.
Betty’s parents are very surprised when Betty announces she wants to be an engineer. They think at first she is joking. That may be partly due to the fact that they never considered a girl becoming an engineer. But the thing that really surprises them is when she tells them she is going to work as part of a surveying crew. The parents try to persuade her not to do this, but it is important to note that Betty wins each argument. I think this says a lot about what the writer was trying to accomplish, subtlety, with this episode.
The mother just doesn’t think it is suitable for a girl, but Betty is prepared and asks questions Margaret, her mother, can’t answer directly.
Margaret: Oh, Betty, this isn’t the sort of life for you. You…you shouldn’t be out working with a …a road gang.
Betty: It’s not a road gang, mother. I’ll be with the county surveying crew, approved by the high school getting practical experience. That’s the idea of it! Practical experience.
Margaret: It doesn’t sound very practical to me. A girl?
Betty: What’s wrong with girls? Girls enter all kinds of professions nowadays, and why shouldn’t they? Answer me that?
Betty was right; lots of girls were entering all kinds of professions in those days. I don’t think it was a matter of appropriateness as it was a matter of being unusual. There were no clear definitions of what was an appropriate kind of work in American culture in those days. I think Margaret was more concerned with Betty working in a road gang than being an engineer. Margaret could not answer Betty’s question, and I think this was a significant win for Betty.
Jim, Betty’s father, has someone different arguments, but he too loses to Betty.
Margaret: Well, this business of going out with a surveying crew. You don’t think she is really serious, do you?
Jim: Oh yes, she is quite serious….for the moment, at least. But I’d say after half a day of tramping though the dirt and lugging surveying instruments she’ll be ready to take up some nice vocation like crocheting. [Audience laughter]
Betty comes in and hears the last part of this.
Betty: I will not give this up after half a day, or half a year, or anything else. Can’t you understand I really mean this?
There is a great deal of joking around in the episode. Not everything can be taken with dead seriousness. I think Jim is serious in thinking Betty will soon give up her romantic notions about becoming an engineer, but he is kidding when he suggests crocheting. Jim goes on in his arguments:
Jim: Betty, before you plunge headlong into this thing….
Betty: I’m not plunging. I went to all the lectures. I took the tests. I showed a strong aptitude for it.
Jim (looking uncomfortable): Oh…
Betty: It appeals to me. I love the out-of-doors, and I’m no dummy at math.
Jim: No, what little you’ve had so far. But wait until you run into trigonometry and calculus. Do you realize engineering schools are some of the toughest to get into?
Betty: So you think I should give up a thing just because it is difficult?
Jim (more discomfort): Er…no…no…I just meant that….
Margaret (finishing Jim’s thought for him): …you’re a girl. That’s the main thing. But what’s your training been so far? Music, ballet, English literature?
Betty: There’s music and poetry in a fine bridge. One lecturer said there’s beauty in a well constructed sewer pipe.
Jim: Wait a minute…this lecturer…is he tall, dark and handsome?
Betty: Oh, don’t be so juvenile, father. There is more to life than romance and all that gonk. The point is, I have found my niche. My life now has direction. There’s a great demand for engineers today. And, it’s a profession that pays very well.
I think there is more of a point here than just that engineering or surveying was traditionally a man’s job. The parents are pointing out that, up to now, Betty has acted like a typical girl and shown very little interest in higher math. Someone who was genuinely interested in engineering should have shown interest in trigonometry or calculus before her final few months of high school. Up until now what Betty has shown interest in is music, ballet, and English literature. That is what Betty is prepared to do, and what experience shows fits her personality. Betty replies with a romantic notion of engineering, and the practical side of paying well.
At this point her parents remove all objections to her going to work with the surveying crew, or becoming an engineer. I’d say Betty has won her case with relative ease. From this point on they are supportive of her decision to pursue her career, is she wants to. The decision is totally up to her. They still don’t think Betty is making a good choice, and Jim still thinks Betty will give it up within half a day, but they support her in making her own choices.
I’d also like to point out that the other members of Betty’s family never oppose Betty’s decision to become an engineer. Kathy, the baby of the family, doesn’t really understand it, thinking Betty wants to drive a train. That’s a typical engineering joke. But she thinks it is cool. Bud, Betty’s sixteen year old brother, really likes the idea of Betty becoming an engineer. He is not too happy with Betty just expropriating his boots, but getting an engineer in the family is a good thing, he thinks. He soon begins peppering her with engineering questions. I think it is telling that Betty has absolutely no interest in hearing practical engineering questions. She refuses to listen to him. I think if Betty were honest she would admit that she really isn’t interested in engineering after all.
So, after successfully overcoming the opposition (what little there was) in her family, the remaining obstacle in this episode is Doyle Hobbs, the young engineering student who is in charge of the surveying crew. He is taking some time off before he completes his degree to earn some money working as a civil engineer. Doyle gives Betty a hard time. He questions why she is there. He treats her rather rudely. He lectures her about what he thinks is the proper role of men and women in society. He makes himself rather obnoxious. And I think the writer intended it that way. He is saying to young women that you will come across some obnoxious people who don’t believe a girl belongs on a survey crew. Engineers have a reputation of not being good with working with people, and Doyle is not an exception. Later you see he is rude and unreasonable to Freddie, who takes Betty’s place after Betty runs home in tears.
But here is another point that might easily be overlooked. Doyle takes seriously the task to teach Betty the trade. John Lynn, Doyle’s assistant, would have been happy to have Betty along to be his assistant and just hold the “chain.” But Doyle wants Betty to learn as much as she can. He does not think she belongs there, but he will help her to become as successful as he can in the profession she has chosen. His real problem is that he is too free with his advice and tries to run Betty’s life.
Another point that needs to be made is that Betty does not play dumb around the engineering boss. She tries to act as smart as she can to impress him, but she has no idea what a transit is, or a plumb bob, or what he is talking about when he says “vernier,” and is honestly confused when he says to look through the telescope. Doyle does not expect her to know, and he doesn’t expect Freddie to know either. So he tells them what they need to know. At Betty’s age I would have acted the same way Betty did, and not because I thought this would endear me to Doyle. Because I was dumb when it came to practical engineering experience.
I think the moral of this episode comes from the words of kindly, wise old John Lynn, after Betty runs away from the job.
Doyle: John, the one big difference between you and me: when I have something to say, I say it.
John: Doyle, they tell me you have a good head for this business. That you’re going places some day. I understand you’re a real hot engineering student. I wouldn’t know much about that. All I know is holding the other end of a chain. But I know enough not to try and run other people’s lives for them.
It’s the lesson Betty’s parents have to learn, time after time, in regard to Betty. Later (in another episode) they try to select which college Betty should go to, but learn to back off and let Betty run her own life. The message seems to be to those who watch this episode, don’t try to tell other people how to run their lives.
At this point it looks like Doyle has won, and Betty has lost. Betty hasn’t quite given up, however. She won’t “take orders from that little pipsqueak” Doyle, so she tries to read engineering books. She can’t make out anything in them. Doyle comes to her house with a box of chocolates with some idea of making up for treating Betty badly. I think it is interesting that Jim wants to tell off Doyle about the high-handed way he treated his daughter. Notice that dad is now fully supporting his daughter. Doyle uses some flattering words to Margaret, saying that he now understands where Betty gets her good looks from. He ruins this in the next sentence by telling Margaret that she looks very motherly. Doyle, boy engineer.
As it turns out, Doyle doesn’t let Jim have a chance to talk. He goes through his vision of how the world ought to be. And to my ears it doesn’t sound bad. It sounds a lot like the Proclamation on Families. He comes on really strong.
Now, this is where the writer introduces a little twist. Betty does not win (overcome the opposition) by convincing Boyle to see things her way or support her in her decision to be an engineer. She wins by adopting a different strategy. She will put on the dress and flirt outrageously with Doyle and maneuver him expertly into a corner where he will want to ask her out on a date. She really is quite clever at it. She beats Doyle at his own game. Does she give up engineering? Actually, we don’t know that. Perhaps she has just learned that going along with Doyle’s vision of how life ought to be is ultimately what she wants to. Or perhaps she just needs to merely make him think that in order to get what she wants out of life. There is nothing to prevent her from going on to engineering in the future.