TheBanyanTree: renaissance woman or feminist reject

[Peter Macinnis]

I missed the start of this, so I shall respond to the subject line, 
rather than the thread.  I have been off, busy, having a few wins.


Aside from lacking the anatomical requisites, I'm getting a bit old for 
the renaissance bit, but I have my feminist stripes.

When my daughter Catriona (but always called Cate) was in pre-school, 
she came home, one day in 1981, and asked what she was going to be when 
she grew up.  Quick as a flash, I said she would be either a research 
physicist or a plumber.

She nodded solemnly, a trick my children seem to have inherited from 
their mother, and next day, when the children were asked, she gave her 
answer in a clear voice.  One small boofhead of a boy, who clearly did 
not know what a research physicist was, let that part pass, but declared 
loudly that girls could not be plumbers.

Quite by chance, I was working closely with the Head of the state's 
School of Plumbing at the time, so when Chris asked me if that was fair, 
I explained that there were eight at the time (many more now), and I was 
able to add that I had met two of them.  So when she heard that, Cate 
said that yes they could, and what's more, her father knew two of them.

She didn't tell us about that bit, but her teacher did, killing herself 
with laughter, but that was the end of it, so far as I was concerned. 
My cohort entered the work force with women being paid less for the same 
work, but by then, we had won the equal-pay fight (almost) and it was on 
to combat stupid attitudes.  To me it was a small blow struck for 
equality, now where's the next windmill that needs skinning?

Not so my daughter, who apparently remembered.  In due course, she wrote 
up her PhD, and gave us a copy of the thesis, drawing my attention to 
page iii. There I read

"Dedicated to my parents, Christine and Peter
When I asked my father at the age of five what I should be when I grew 
up, he suggested I be a research physicist or a plumber. In marine 
botany I have perhaps found one field where I can do a bit of both."

That was a few years ago.  Here is my daughter today: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f04W2qugqfQ

I think I won that one as well.

Oh yes, and she is now officially pregnant, but I will be quite happy to 
have another grand-daughter: the older one is already showing mechanical 
aptitude.

Call me proxy-renaissance-feminist-at-a-distance.

If you would equality win
Then with the boofheads first begin!



-- 
  _--|\   Peter Macinnis, feral word herder & science gossip.
/     \  Klein bottle stopper design consultant,
\.--._*  wholesaler of patented bonsai windvane mechanisms
      v   http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/index.htm