Serendipity

24 01 2026

So I occasionally enjoy online content from Elle Cordova, mainly because she’s smart and erudite, but also because she often talks about fonts and grammar. A fellow nerd, one might say. (Or not, if one doesn’t consider oneself that way inclined.)

Anyway, I recently came across an old posting of hers where she covers Peggy Seeger’s I’m Gonna be an Engineer.

It appealed because of its firm feminist message, if a little sad at recounting the oft-wasted talents of our fairer sex. I assumed both Mss (plural Ms?) Cordova and Seeger were Americans, so suddenly sat upright when I heard the British engineering company of Vickers mentioned (in a typically misogynistic scene, as one might expect).

Being who I am, I felt the irresistible urge to investigate, and discovered that Ms Seeger did indeed spend a significant chunk of time in the UK until 1994, and she felt the urge to return to pretty Oxford in 2010. I confess I’d never previously heard of her, but I’m glad that Ms Cordova had, and introduced me to this sadly timeless indictment of how little we’ve moved forward in recognising the value and skills of 50% of our species!

For the record, when I was studying Computing & Electronics at Durham University back in the early 80s (it was a new thing, and few universities even offered courses specifically in computing back then), there was only one female on the course. Actually, I think there were only 8 or so of us on the entire course, so I suppose statistically speaking that was actually pretty good for the times we were in! The more general Engineering course (acknowledged as one of the toughest around, at the time) had, I believe, 5 females in the cohort – a much lower percentage given the popularity of the course. Several years later when I was working at a software/electronics company we had only a single female engineer in the whole company.

To my personal knowledge these few women have had successful careers in engineering areas as diverse as the North Sea oil fields and designing the future of electrically powered light aircraft.

We’re mad to undervalue (or even completely ignore) the potential contributions of half our population simply because of prejudice and biology. I have two daughters, both brought up to not take shit from anyone – especially men. And yes: they’re both way smarter than me.


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Bitter-sweet Commentary

8 05 2025

One thing leads to another (as The Fixx tried to educate us way back in 1983).

At a recent Rotary Club used book sale, I picked up a book (imagine that!) of Oscar Wilde observations. It was notable mostly for NOT containing his more well known witticisms, and therefore being more thought-provoking than entertaining.

Having finished, I felt still in a literary mood for my next read, and selected a copy of the Pygmalion script by G.B. Shaw, fellow Irishman and contemporary of Wilde. The book’s preface laid out Shaw’s history, including each of his major career milestones, books, and of course – plays. One in particular stood out – for being banned for several years after being written in 1893, before its eventual staging in London in 1902: Mrs Warren’s Profession. Mere moments of searching found it available as an unabridged audio play, via my local library and the Libby app.

Mrs Warren’s Profession – Image from goodreads.com

I’m not a huge user of audio books, but occasionally it’s the only way I can access a work and the Libby app. is very simple to use when I’m walking the dog. One useful feature is its ability to speed up the audio by say 20% to shorten the consumption time without making people sound like Pinky and Perky.

All that to say I listened to “Mrs Warren’s Profession” whilst walking Gromit the rescue dog this afternoon. Written in 1893, it was one of many illustrations of how Shaw was years ahead of his time with social observation, especially with respect to the status of women in society and the implicit power of men over the choices available to them.

I won’t bore you with a blow by blow account of the story – I recommend you listen (or ideally watch a live production) for yourself. Suffice it to say, he revisited some of the themes – in a gentler way – in his most famous play: Pygmalion, which was re-imagined as the highly successful stage musical and film My Fair Lady. In both, the lead female character (Mrs Warren’s daughter Vivie in one, Eliza in the other) asserts her independence and equality. Shaw was bitterly opposed to productions of Pygmalion where it was implied Eliza ended up marrying Professor Higgins in the default “happy ending”. He would have hated the ending of My Fair Lady therefore.

Mrs Warren’s Profession is a comedy, but hard hitting with its messages. Mrs Warren is surprisingly reconciled with her liberal minded daughter early on, regarding her murky past, when the bald social inequalities are explained. Later though, when it is clear that free choice was now the case, her continued exploitation of others causes a lasting rift.

It’s about 90 minutes long, and I confess I enjoyed it hugely – leaving me with much to think about… not least how little has changed in over 100 years.


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A father’s missive

20 07 2014

I have two daughters.

Not unlike most fathers, I am proud of my children. Yes – my son too.

They will experience things I can’t even imagine – good and bad.

They are smart. They are considerate. They are, of course, beautiful. As every father’s daughter surely is.

Sure – they can be irksome too. They are, after all, human. They are not perfect.

They have many advantages I didn’t have growing up. The internet is an obvious one.

But some things have not improved in a generation. They live their lives in the 21st Century. And they live in a world where they are still considered “less”. For no reason other than what they do not have between their legs.

They have many advantages their mother and grandmothers did not have. But not all the advantages even their great-great grandfathers had.

This video refers to the US’s issue with healthcare access, and its control by the overwhelmingly male legislature. The same issues exist to a greater or lesser extent in many countries.

Things haven’t improved as much as they should have by 2014, but I have hope: my daughters have a voice. A voice that can be heard. Listened to.

I hope, as they launch themselves into the adult world, that they choose to use them. Choose to speak out for the things they feel worthy of their support. Against the things that need to change.

But if not, then that’s OK too. It is their right to make choices as they see fit – without my interference, or that of any other man.


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Men Can be Feminists Too, You Know!

18 12 2011

What’s so wrong with sex discrimination? I think one should always be discriminating when it comes to sex. Indiscriminate sex would be so exhausting, if nothing else! But I digress. And so soon in the proceedings too.

I wanted to talk about how women are treated. I did, but then I thought I’d better write it down too, so you could all share. So let’s not get too academic here – I accept that in principle men can be discriminated against too, but I wanted to discuss women specifically. And I don’t mean women’s rights either. Rights (and the oft-forgotten flip-side of “responsibilities”) are bestowed by society formally. They are the result of debate by boring old farts in sumptuous buildings consuming our taxes with their luncheon expenses. It’s called democracy. Anyway, whether or not a specific right is invoked by a specific individual, they are enshrined in the statutes, and are there for the invoking. All well and good. I’m in favour. I’d have been taking cups of tea around to cheer up Mrs Pankhurst chained to the railings, no problem. But what about attitude? Respect? You can’t easily legislate these things.

My most earnest friend Bunbury and I recently had a discussion about self-image in women, and how since before Cleopatra’s time cosmetics and other “image enhancers” have been foisted on the already fairer sex to “improve” them. Though patently for their own marketing purposes, I have a lot of respect for the recent Dove “campaign for real beauty“. One video from the series is here for your consideration – “Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does”:

But the real reason for the post is something I recently received via Twitter that saddened me deeply. (Thanks for the post D.):

Top 10: Subtle Ways To Tell Her She’s Getting Fat

Now this article is from AskMen.com, which has a tagline “Become a better man”. Superficially it’s claiming to help the (male) reader be gentle and subtle while telling his beloved that basically she’s not living up to his physical ideals, and she’d damned well better do something about it. But in a nice way, you understand. Pathetic is a word that springs to mind. After many others more Anglo-Saxon in origin that I’m not in the mood to type. Even in this day of metrosexuals, trendy gyms and as many hair and body products for men as for women, there’s still this persistent Western expectation that “the woman” should remain in some kind of stasis maintaining her appearance barely post-pubescent, while it’s perfectly OK for the bloke to bugger off to the pub and sink a few swift pints whenever it suits him, where a few extra kilos is seen as merely “making me more cuddly”.

Sometimes I wonder why they put up with us, I really do…


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