To be pissed off with the old boys network?

[poshsinglemum]

After reading some threads on private schools and bullying I would like to air my views on the old boys network.

Everyone assumes that if you go to a private school you will have better connections and make fantastic contacts and get further in life. That is if you manage to get in there with the old boys network that is.

They were a clique of wealthy, popular jocks basically who would hardly let anyone in. Not many boys at my school were allowed ''in'' and as a women it was worse. to be allowed to get in with them as a woman you basically had to look like barbie.

I certainly was excluded by them and as a result made no decent contacts or nor did I bag myself a rich bloke. More fool me I can hear you say but AIBU to think they are bastards?

Going to private school does NOT suddenly equip yopu with an influential address book.

Just watching the programme on BBC 2 and I jsut cannot see how to change the system whereby these cronies will allow anyone who isn't in their club have a say.

well the 11+ private tutors round here are making money from some where

I'd like to see politicians actually have a life before entering politics - that would be a start!

I do find these chinless wonders (in all parties) who made representing the people into a beige career choice made to get proper jobs

I went to a crappy secondary thats why my spelling is so rubbish

I got my debating skills from the labour and trades union movement

GLS, something about fools and money comes to mind. Although some parents are simply short of time.

posh what you seems to misunderstand here is that it is an old boys network. Women in these circles can have their little career if they like, just as long as they look after the children once they are born. Thats what women are for!

that and looking pretty in the Daily Mail

only if the women chose sahm,they can pay nursery or nanny.isnt beyond anyone ken that a mum works and maintains career post baby

FITG - Say what you like about the OBN but it ISN'T sexist. The girls make the same type of contacts and do similarly well.

Nevermind the City and politics, just ask any of the women at Conde Nast.

if you are worth £7+ Million and daddy owns most of southern England you perhaps don;t need to work

In reply to the OP about how to stop them - don't vote for them

No SM while they may chose to send their children to nursery and have a nanny, they are not expected to have a career too, no matter whether they were top lawyers etc pre children. If their husband takes home upwards of £1m pa they are very much expected to run the house and put their own careers and expectations second

an expectation isnt a compulsion.if so loaded then get nanny and work on?

NS I really beg to differ. I think the old boys network is just that. Sexist. OK some women may have done well, but IME, most are expected to have kids and stay at home. With help mostly.

Well, I went to a private school, and have no "connections" whatsoever- probably due to the fact that I was a "nobody" when I arrived and just being at the same school as people who move in the same circles does not put you in that circle!

I'm quite happy to not be involved in any "network". I got good grades and have the career I wanted, regardless. The main advantage I could see over the local state school at the time (where my mum taught) was that our classes weren't disrupted by pupils flinging furniture- anyone who wasn't prepared to sit and be taught was out, which meant that the teachers (no better than the teachers at the state school) could spend their time teaching and not maniacally trying to keep discipline in a system that makes it very hard to do so.

As for the confidence thing- I would argue it was entirely the opposite for me. I went in, from my state primary confident and outgoing, and lost all social confidence in the first year I was there. It took years to get it back, and I only did it by beating the snooty buggers in every exam we were set, getting my grades and then leaving and never looking back!

look at the shit the Daily mail gave Cherie Blair for having a job - and how it positivly works it's self into a frezy or many juice of Sam Cam and her fragrant beauty - excuse me I have to go vomit!

of man juice - blimey I was ill!

and since when was dm owt but indignant tittle tattle. anyone who benchmarks their life against what dm says is a hopeless case

SM that is what I would do, but IME many woman are expected to and do stay at home with their children. I am talking about very bright female lawyers here, where the choice on paper between her and her DS would have been a no brainer. But in reality, the female of the couple stayed at home because of the 'old boys network'. Sorry folks but it really does exist

As far as sexism goes: These OBN types that we're talking about, we're meaning Dave and Gideon, right? Not some 80yo Gents club stereotype?

Well, these OBNers consider themselves way above sexism. They have talented, working wives. (Thus giving their offspring an even firmer footing on the Network). They don't expect their wives to stay home. That's just not it at all.

it's the tory rag of choice though and the voice of 'middle England' (so it believes)

I wouldn;t wipe my arse with it but the Tory Party love it to bits

Nothing wrong with being a SAHM but it's not any better than working - unless you are the PM's wife

im know they do,not disputing your account.i still find it unfathomable expectation to go play housey just because dh is loaded

Come on NS their wives have 'jobs'. A designer for some posh stationary co, yes thats a really demanding job..........

As for stereotypes, sorry but I know too many of these types of people and equality is not their thing believe me!

aye SM but we have the need to work for our own sanity, non?

aye,i love working.it fulfils me

what do you do SM?