Woman's Hour

DGD2 loves 'pole-dancing' if she comes across one outside anywhere! She's 4. Perhaps she's getting in training for becoming a surgeon

rosequartz I know. mystified. Not the type you'd think would go for that. No make up etc person. But it does make you very strong of course.

My mind boggles that a medical Doctor would marry a Peter Andre type.
(That remark is just a sociological observation.)

Is this indicative of the sort of "choice" that women find at work:

Guardian March 2013

"Women are suffering escalating levels of illegal discrimination at work when they get pregnant and are often made redundant while they are on maternity leave, according to a new poll.

"1 in 7 women surveyed had lost their job while on maternity leave, 40% said their jobs had change by the time they returned, with half reporting a cut in hours or demotion.

"One woman who contacted Maternity Action was Sarah, from the south-east. She wrote: "I was both anxious and excited about going back to work … I'd agonised over childcare and paid a large deposit at our local nursery. I'd left my son there for two weeks to get him used to it gradually. I had to buy new clothes as none of my old ones fitted any more … Like many women, I felt unconfident about going back – but also exhilarated. The day came, I dropped my baby off, and arrived at work early and raring to go. The head of personnel invited me for a coffee to explain that, with regret, I was being made redundant."

No wonder some women feel obliged to get back to work as quickly as possible, even if it means leaving a very young baby all day in a nursery.

It's choice?

That's quite probable.

And, vickymeldrew, your point is?

I do not believe there is a 'glass ceiling' stopping women. Professionally qualified women would be very likely to marry men of similar status, and it may be that one party would choose to combine their career with juggling the household and family. I believe there is a projected shortage of medical doctors as many women are choosing to work part time. Emily MacDonagh (Peter Andre's wife) is an example of a newly qualified doctor who, I believe, chooses to work two days a week.

Women have far more choice these days than when we were young when the choices were mainly teaching, nursing or office work.
One of the girls in my 6th form wanted to be a surgeon and was scoffed at by the school.

One of my daughters trained as a graphic designer and was the only woman. Another is a midwife, which is overwhelmingly a female career. Should we be campaigning (on Woman's Hour) for equal numbers of men and women in these careers? I think there are far more important things to get worked-up about.

anno I think i would prefer Raspberry Pie these days.

But come to think of it, my cousin who is a surgical registrar keeps herself strong and fit by .... pole dancing.

Love it JessM

Apologies, I now find that the said computer is called Raspberry Pi.

There was a plan to supply all Y7 students with Raspberry Pie computers which were to enable the teaching of coding. My Y7 DGS (the family geek) hasn't heard of this scheme, so it sounds as if the DfE has 'forgotten' it. In his primary school he attended a 'coding club' in his lunch hour and is more knowledgeable about programming than the adults in the family.

Yes I did computer science in the first year of my degree, when computer storage was on little iron rings (see - I even remember one of the lectures!)
Don't know why it's a "girls subject" in India but not here. Schools don't really seem to get that it is a real subject. Plus good teachers in the area are extremely hard to come by. The standard school offering seems to have been how to use Microsoft Office. Programming has now been introduced in England into the national curriculum. I do wonder how they are managing to teach it though.
I get pissed off with Woman's Hour when they do cooking. Cookery on the radio is pathetic. The presenters are drooling and the rest of us - well - we can watch Masterchef can't we.

There are some problems with women as surgeons-particularly orthopaedic, but they have advantages as well. Smaller hands are useful for oral surgery, keyhole surgery and can do more fiddly things!
If men are really deciding to have nothing to do with women it is a pity, on the other hand I can see a lot of them saying they are going to do this but not quite managing to keep to it. (Nearly put 'keep it up' but I thought that might be misconstrued.)

mbody thought they had power tools. But come to think of it, my cousin who is a surgical registrar keeps herself strong and fit by .... pole dancing.

I read an article yesterday (Sunday Times again) about the increasing number of young men who have decided to have nothing to do with women - too risky. The movement started in the USA, and now there's a growing online group in the UK.
Many are students - evidently at some universities they get a lecture in their first year warning them to be sure of the girl's consent before they have sex.
There are other groups of men who are divorced and fighting for the right to see their children.

Whilst things did improve considerably over my years in the workplace there are still issues to be dealt with.

My daughter's organisation is "restructuring", which seems to involve losing part time management jobs which are so ideal for working Mums.

I do so agree about Woman's Hour. I gave up on it some years ago when at home with a small child and all it seemed to do was get at women like me, a "non-working" stay at home mother. It must never have reached its target audience of working women, so patronising too.

DGodD who is a consultant said that not so many women go into surgery because it requires strength - and, feminists or not, they are not as strong as men all strong enough to be surgeons.

Yes, a balance would be better trisher

There are certainly women coming into medicine TriciaF the problem is they seldom progress to higher levels of the profession. For example one large city hospital has lists of surgeons using their theatres, how many are women?-2. If 75% of the profession are women at the start one would expect there to be more.
rosequartz I realise that some women are interested in domestic topics, but the poster seems to think they are in the majority, I just wanted to say that some of us disagree.

As for Medicine and Law:
Medicine - I saw recently a photo of the new group of interns at our local hospital, and about 75% were women. Many of the specialists are women, and that's in a country which was one of the last in the western world to give women the vote (1944, French Muslim women in Algeria 1958.)
And Law - I was speaking to a woman solicitor from Aberdeen a couple of years ago and she said the majority of newly qualified trainees coming into her profession were women.

But some people are interested in domestic topics - as well as having an eclectic range of more cerebral interests - or an in-depth particular interest. I - and I am sure others - am interested in topics which are not exclusive to women but may have relevance to them.

So perhaps a better mix and wider range of topics would make WH more interesting to more people.

Actually I'm not really interested in "domestic topics". I am very interested in history and the way that what women have done in the past continues to be undervalued and under recorded. The idea that it is somehow a radical feminist proposal to have women equally represented on banknotes I find ludicrous. It's simply equality. Why if you don't care apricot would you condemn people who do? If you doubt that women's history is not told and not recorded consider the film 'Suffragette' and how many people came out of that film saying "I never knew about those things"

varian and anyone else who may be interested

Here's a link to the history of one of the first courses in computing science to be set up in this country in 1965 (further down in the link):

www.fcet.staffs.ac.uk/jdw1/sucfm/stafford.htm

Degrees were awarded by the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA)

It is interesting that they are showing a woman at the DEUCE control desk ten years before that momentous event!