The Women Of Home Depot

A few months back I went to a Home Depot in Los Angeles to buy Quick-Crete.  While traversing the aisles I noticed that most of the employees were women.  I'd even go as far as to say that in every different Home Depot I've been in since then I've noticed a considerable tip in the scales with regard to the ratio of female to male staff members. It empowers me to know that, in light of America's current unemployment rate and looming recession, women, who have been shunned from the currently male dominated flight attendant industry, but not this industry alone, are fighting back and hijacking the formerly male dominated tool selling industry.  

To celebrate, Palestinian Bluetooth is in the process of teaming up with Home Depot to market an exclusive line of calendars for 2009 entitled, "The Women of Home Depot."  The executives in Home Depot's corporate branch are yet to return my phone calls regarding this matter but I am entirely confident that once they've read this blog we will be conducting business together.  As a consolation, I went to the Home Depot in Secaucus, NJ, today, not to buy anything, but to talk to some of these lovely ladies and find out if my assumption is true.  Here's who I met...

Jackie Valasquez, our honorary woman of Home Depot for April 2008, is a sales representative in the tool rental department at the Secaucus, NJ, branch where she has worked for ten years.  Her home town is Union City, NJ.  Jackie's main hobby is bike riding.  Her main interests and concerns are health issues.  Jackie participates in walks to help raise awareness and money for children who are diagnosed with illnesses such as cancer.  When I shared with Jackie my assumption regarding the ratio of female to male Home Depot employees she was surprised and didn't agree as she has been working at Home Depot for a decade.  However, she did mention that there has certainly been an increase in the hirings of female store managers and female sales representatives in the tool rental department.  Jackie is beautiful, polite, intelligent, and  extremely pleasant to speak with.  If you're in need of renting some tools, I'd highly recommend paying Jackie a visit.  Don't go on Tuesday or Friday though, as those are her days off.

(side note: The flight attendant industry, once dominated by women, is only one industry among many wherein women have been "heisman trophied" by men.  If only audiences at Black Hollies' shows could be less "flight attendant industry" and more "tool selling industry" we'd die a happy band.  Without getting too far ahead of ourselves the band does indeed realize that the ratio of actual dogs and cats to humans in attendance at Black Hollies' shows needs to be adjusted, in favor of humans, before the band can even begin to imagine adjustments regarding the guy/girl ratio).