Feminist Pub 17: The Bluestocking frolics in the fells and fens of feminism

At my old company for long service (10yrs, 15yrs, 20yrs etc) you got a few hundred quid to take your colleagues out for a celebration. Great, you get to spend MORE time with your colleagues! Thought I

Though having seen what other companies offer that was clearly rather churlish of me

You get pens for long service? I was lucky enough to get a printed out sheet of A4. My manager was in a generous mood, and printed it in colour.

Talking of prostate cancer, I was in the women's loos in a pub on Saturday, and all over the mirrors were sticker for #MenUnited and prostate cancer. I went out of the loos and checked the door, because I was beginning to think that I must be in the blokes loos, despite the lack of urinals and the presence of sanitary bins. I have nothing against raising awareness of prostate cancer (my father died from it, and his brother has been treated for it - were I male, I'd almost certainly be in the running.) But I did find it an odd subject, not to mention confusing, for the women's loos, which is by definition, a women-only space, no men. And if it's causing me to question whether I'm even in the right loos (I was stone cold sober, no alcohol,) then I'm not sure they've got the campaign quite right.

(Also, I thought I'd just check the campaign name, in case I remembered it wrongly. Do not google "Men together" without parental controls on...)

"Lab princess". Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

I'm glad I'm not alone in being pissed off by the whole concept of PipetGirl. At least smiley girls lab coat isn't emblazoned with glittery letters which read 'lab princess'

annie not only science but they'll be able to do medicine and veterinary science too now!

The names are depressing puffin - lemon/lime, bubblegum pink, raspberry. It's a veritable ice cream factory.

But yaaay female medics will be able to accesorise their bubblegum littmann with a pipettegirl.

I cannot imagine a planet on which I would get a pink Littman. Mine was a fetching shade of green.

I will stand vaguely corrected that the "male" sucker-upper-er is in fact a Pipetboy. It's the micropipettes that are PipetMan. Odd how the bigger piece of kit is a "boy" and the smaller one is a "man", but meh....

All besides the point that PipetGirl gives me the RAGE!

I have posted about this on FB and a friend with a teenage DD has responded "Shall mention to DD that she and her friends will finally be able to do science!"

And another friend has suggested that I could use it on the Labour WomanBus.

oubliette have you seen these?
Long ago when I was a vet student when you ordered your stethoscope it came in a choice of colours. IIRC, no one chose the bubblegum pink littmann. (There may have been a sparkly lilac too) Mine was blue, most people chose black, navy, dark green or red.

Bugger -lab not man. Don't know where autocorrect got that from

although I did once work in a man that didn't have any because they still routinely used mouth pipetting

Your comment about blue ones/prostrate cancer is pretty much exactly what I posted in response

We always referred to them as 'Gilsons' (regardless of what make they were). I think my last set were grey Eppendorf ones...

I refused to accept my five year service award - the powers-that-be decided that I should have a shiny lightweight purple pen. Whilst anyone male got a business-like sturdy navy one. Which I couldn't have because they 'hadn't ordered enough to give people a choice'

Oh, Oubliette, that's just so fucking depressing! Will there be a matching blue one for prostate cancer #whaddaboudamenz

I had a fetching turquoise one. Even my feeble girl hands managed to operate it. And oddly, the normal version is called Pipetman, and yet this feminised version is Pipetgirl? I imagine the "sensible folk" will put this down to Pipetwoman not having quite the same ring to it.

Gah!

I always just call them "Sucker Upper-ers" anyway.

I've had an awful day in work. I am surrounded by unhelpful jobsworths. Please pass the closest drink. I don't care what.

I wish I lived in happy no sexism land with the rest of those mumsnetters. Maybe one day!

Subtlety Exactly what I was going to post! Discriminated against, me? By my colleagues and friends? Surely not! Hahahahahahaha.

One of my lab-based friends just posted this. And now suddenly I'm feeling annoyed with the world. Does raising money for any kind of cause somehow justify gender stereotyping? Did I miss the memo on that?

Exciting news Annie! Keep us posted.

Gosh yes that is a painful thought. Hard to know how unpacked you should get really!

Not quite as surrounded as we were, Petula. We can actually see some patches of floor and don't need to go mining to find our bed of an evening.

The painful part is that this is just a temporary house so we get to do it all again in a few months. (why don't we have a crying emoticon?)

Good luck annie! Are you surrounded by boxes?

Evening all!

It seems I've been lucky in only encountering amusing threads lately. I spent far too much of this afternoon on the "What's your "so, how's Adam?" moment?" thread, which was vair funny. My brain is still exhausted from moving so I'm not sure I could cope with a thread full of handmaidens at the moment.

In quite exciting news, I have two job interviews coming up; a phone interview tomorrow morning and an in-person one next Monday. This is all a great relief - I haven't had an interview since well before Christmas and was getting quite desperate for some kind of positive job-hunt-based movement.

Scone that thread

Although I recognise it.

Time was, I thought I wasn't held back at all by being female, oh no, so any visible discrimination (most countries and companies being run by men) was simply a generational issue and as I aged it would change.

Then I realised (a) I wasn't getting treated the same as the blokes at work, whilst being just as good as them, and that isn't getting better as I get older and more senior it's getting worse; and (b) where are the female leaders I dreamed of? There's a smattering but we're still a looooong way from parity.

Hence here I am in the pub.