A thread started by a man to throw a few things around.

Yes it was. But also showed me first hand that certainly not all Board members are chosen on merit.

tokenisem

damn i wish i could spell!

Of course I wasn't actually called that, it just became clear I was.

"Oh we have a woman on our board..." they would happily tell others - except we won't listen to her at all

how did you react to being called the honerary woman? eats? just curious

Yes it is behaviour. There is this discourse that boys are not being engaged or interested enough. Yes good teaching increases engagement, but at some level kids have to value education and be prepared to work through the boring bits or less exciting bits. Badly behaved kids generally do not

I have sat on Boards as the honorary women. No it is not based on merit.

Similarly with MPs. Some of the male MPs I have known I have been about - really chosen on merit?? If we don't have positive discrimination we will get anywhere in tackling these issues

Is behaviour the problem though? It's lack of engagement.

like i say, quotas are problematic becuase of the merit your supposed to be promoted to the board on
but the fact is , board members are not placed on merit as it now stands anyway, it's entitlement sometimes of birth. public school boys waveing their dicks around and watching each others backs, perhaps allowing one women into the club for their PR and then calling her a 'honerary male' .

garlic- Yes teenagers push boundaries. But in terms of behaving well enough at school to learn stuff and pass exams, ime girls are more likely to do that than boys

Plenty of similar jokes about teenage girls on this site. And it is different joking about your own kind and another group of people you don't belong to.

I think a little bit of pulling up the drawbridge but more not being willing to recognise that they have had to overcome additional stuff because they are woman. It hurts to recognidse you are treated differently or face additional barriers because of something you have no control over - your sex. race, etc.

These women to achieve what they have, will have very strong sense of themselves, strong self confifdence and belief in their own abilities to get where they are. To suggest that there are things that do make things harder for them and thus make them vulnerable ie. their sex, is a hard thing emotionally to hear. So it is easier to deny it, say well if I did it anyone can if they are good enough

Oh, I was! Well, I was intelligent but far more interested in being 'rebelliously independent'. Teenagers push boundaries, it's normal development.

teenage boys could not be described as the most sensible section of society, generaly speaking, i know i wasnt. but thats ok, i loved being a teenage boy, it was a laugh a minute.

'i mean people have to feel secure that they have reached their position on merit'.

Which is why implementing quota's to get women into the boardroom is a crap idea, what self respecting woman would want to have any part of this.

It always is a joke when it's aimed at men. Strange how it's never a joke when it's aimed at women.

I suggest you drop the 'joke' that teenage girls are idiots and see what response you get.

pulling up the drawbridge behined them, possibly sanjeev, i mean woman are more competitive with other women than with men.
personaly i think positive discrimination and quotas are a good thing, problematic of course, i mean people have to feel secure that they have reached their position on merit, but when i see a boardroom full of men i dont see merit, i see the old boy network and entitlement at work.

I'm reading this thread but trying not to post. I do want to say that you haven't struck me as anti-feminist, Sanjeev, just a bit dozy over some issues ... Which is par for the course, male or female, when beginning to look at the world from a fresh perspective.

I think the rules were recently changed to make a lot more course work supervised for GCSEs. The problems for women seem to come because they marry up so the man earns more so if you decide who might stay home (given most people do not earn much and can hardly cover childcare) then the lower earner gives up work. If you earn a lot more than your husband as increasing numbers of women do then the woman is likely to keep on working .If you both earn £200k and like work then you probably jsut hire a nanny. If one earns £400k and the other £20k the £20ker if she or he has few prospects of higher pay later, is likely to tgive up work.

As long as women seek good providers as husbands they are likely to stop work or go part time when babies come along. If we can ensure daughters are not looking for that and earn the same or more than their men then the issues do largely go away. Obviously any woman can work for herself as I do. I cannot discriminate against my self. If you are the best at what you do in the UK peoople come to you whether you are white, black, one legged, female or male. If you are pretty useless waster who uses every excuse to be off sick - the sort of pat her tummy woe is me, I am first woman in the world pregnant or male equivalent with a bad back then everyone will always be happy to see the back of you.

I thought it was a joke too

Yes family influence lessens and peers become more important. But I think teenagers generally do listen more to parents than most parents think they do - they just don't always show any sign of it! Parents though do still have a lot of influence.

I think many parents and teachers - although not all - let boys away with stuff they wouldn't let girls away with. I'm not talking about big stuff, just lots of small stuff often. But it is the small stuff - talking in class, not concentrating, etc that makes a real difference to achievement often.

MrMagnolia - Of course teenage boys are not generally idiots. They do mature more slowly than girls though and this does have an impact

'Teenage boys are, by and large idiots. I know, I was one.'

I think this is the point at which I stop engaging. If you'd used the same generalization about teenage girls, you'd have been flamed to infinity.

This kind of divisive, sexist bullshit really fucking infuriates me.

Sanjeev - I agree. Of course kids are influenced by peers as well, but if its a decent school then kids brought up well at home do behave largely in the classroom. And the reality is generally parents are less tough on boys - boys will be boys and all that.