Today I’m headed off to carry out condition surveys with the Head of Maintenance at my client’s main site. Despite also being the principal trade union representative for the whole organisation, and therefore the guardian and upholder of right-on-ness, he finds it impossible to imagine that a girl can do this job. He fails to mention any technical issues (lifts, boilers, electrical systems) and looks disgusted if I ask questions that display any degree of knowledge of his team’s work.
The lads on the tools are embarrassed when I visit by the tit posters in their work area. Since the organisation whose buildings and systems they are maintaining is a beacon of women’s emancipation, I should think so too. However I expect this is the least important reason why the team is exclusively lads and no lasses.
Unfortunately my latest accolade does not help me here. I was voted one of the most Influential Women in my profession. I am confident that the handful of other women in the profession were the only people voting, the men pausing only to roar with laughter at the absurd oxymoron before returning to their golf, freemasonry and lap dancing bars.
It’s becoming more of a problem in our field as time goes on. When women of my generation were starting our careers, we knew there would be an element of struggle to be taken seriously, to get on. Cosmo had prepared us to challenge discrimination head on, insist on being taken on our merits, fight the good feminist fight.
Girls these days, fresh out of university, really aren’t expecting it. Often don’t recognise it for what it is, are not equipped with any tools to tackle it, and therefore in my field often fail to make the progress that their talent would pre-indicate. The most common reason for women leaving our professional institute is “leaving the profession”. Only a tiny handful of us are concerned (yes, all women).
More, much more, to come on this topic.
The lads on the tools are embarrassed when I visit by the tit posters in their work area. Since the organisation whose buildings and systems they are maintaining is a beacon of women’s emancipation, I should think so too. However I expect this is the least important reason why the team is exclusively lads and no lasses.
Unfortunately my latest accolade does not help me here. I was voted one of the most Influential Women in my profession. I am confident that the handful of other women in the profession were the only people voting, the men pausing only to roar with laughter at the absurd oxymoron before returning to their golf, freemasonry and lap dancing bars.
It’s becoming more of a problem in our field as time goes on. When women of my generation were starting our careers, we knew there would be an element of struggle to be taken seriously, to get on. Cosmo had prepared us to challenge discrimination head on, insist on being taken on our merits, fight the good feminist fight.
Girls these days, fresh out of university, really aren’t expecting it. Often don’t recognise it for what it is, are not equipped with any tools to tackle it, and therefore in my field often fail to make the progress that their talent would pre-indicate. The most common reason for women leaving our professional institute is “leaving the profession”. Only a tiny handful of us are concerned (yes, all women).
More, much more, to come on this topic.
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