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

[AKnickerfulOfMenace]

This is the 17th incarnation of the Feminist Pub!

Here be goats, cannons and chat on feminism and related themes. Also snacks. And booze, copious booze.

Welcome!

yes, Annie, it was right above the eye. The bee got caught in my hair and stung me several times. My entire forehead/eye area swelled up .

It was v. romantic and just what every newlywed hopes for.

Came across this rather bizarre advert while at work today.

All my bones ache and my ears ache and my throat hurts.

I'm caught something, haven't I?

How is it only Thursday? Surely there can't be another working day before the weekend. I'm feeling wiped out (perhaps I've caught something too). I think I need a medicinal hot toddy.

Oh, and fingers crossed for everyone on the job application/interview front.

I went to a job interview with a black eye once. (I had an unplanned meeting with the ledge over the stairs in my childhood home, because I wasn't 10 any more, and didn't gave the same clearance as I had had at that age when swinging down the stairs.) Fortunately, the bloke interviewing me was into rugby, so thought it was entirely normal to show up places with injuries.

Anyone know anything about sound (specifically why different amounts of water in a test tube produces different pitches)? We're trying to help DS (aged 9) with his science homework. DH and I can't answer this question (despite having 9 GCSEs, 7 A-levels, 2 degrees and 2 PhDs between us in STEM subjects )

It'll be something to do with how much space there is for sound waves to get reflected, surely?

(No physics since age 14, 2 STEM subject GCSEs and MSc in Computer Science.)

Google suggests I'm on the right track - there are quite a few hits.

(Obviously you don't have to tell your child you used Google...)

Google tells me that slower vibrations = lower sounds, and higher vibrations = higher sounds.

It then gives me two conflicting outcomes:

1. Emptier vessels = lower sounds because of the sound waves moving through the air (more air = slower sound waves).
2. Emptier vessels = higher sounds because of sound waves moving through the water (more water = slower sound waves).

DS tells me that emptier tubes produce higher sounds, so I suppose answer 2 must be correct.

How is he making the sound? I only know in te context of playing the flute, where more holes closed (generally) means lower notes because of reason 1

Is he dinging them rather than blowing across the top?

Dinging would correspond with reason 2

It's different ways of making sounds

What buffy said and I was ineptly scrabbling towards

Flute is open-ended tube

I think he was hitting the test tube with a spoon amazed that experiment didn't end up with broken glass all over the lab

I can't believe I'm struggling with a scientific concept a 9 year old is expected to understand. How did I miss that bit of physics I wonder?

Thanks for the help - I've explained the slower sound waves = lower sound, faster sound waves = higher sound bit, and left it at that.

V glad I went to that women in tech event. Feeling much more energised and confident about things - just strode fown the concourse at Waterloo, rather than the dejected trudge I managed on the way up. (And always good to hear Stephanie Shirley speak.)

Do you think it would be too provocative to put badges round my desk, which say things like, "pigeonholed", "over-qualified" and "undiscovered talent"?

(The answer is yes, but I am still tempted.)

I like the sound of your badges Ebear - I want to put a sign by my desk which says "Fuck off I'm busy" which is probably less acceptable.

Would these hell, EBear?

I'm smarting with frustration at job hunting at the moment. So many companies paying lip service to diversity and yet I don't even get replies to polite emails to their HR departments

Those WTF post-its are sold by teacher supplies. Think I should get some?

I think a lot of companies do care about diversity, if only because research has shown more diverse teams tend to be higher performing, and companies with more women in the c-suite and on the board tend to be more profitable than the ones with fewer or none.

However, it seems to fail to get through to all levels; HR is on board, all directors and higher have had diversity training, are aware of unconscious bias and so on. But a lot of the recruiting, while it goes through HR and so on, the actual decisions and interviewing is done by people lower than director-level, and they haven't had the diversity training (because there hasn't been the budget to roll it out to lower levels yet), and they are worried about "team fit", and so they are more biased towards white middle-class men like them.

Obviously NAMALT (managers, rather than men), but enough of them are that it means there is no pipeline, and there is not a critical mass of women that makes it seem normal to have them there.

Plus, they don't see the diversity problem ("well, you're here, so we do employ women, don't we?") and don't think it's anything to do with them. Whereas I don't know of a single woman working in IT who hasn't at least considered how they are seen as a role model, whether they should be actively involved in STEM promotion and so on - I do sometimes feel bitter that that sort of thing just doesn't even feature on the radar of my male colleagues.

And I'm not sure what to do about it - I'm active in promoting STEM careers to schoolchildren, and I witter on about it enough here, but I don't seem to be able to communicate it to my immediate colleagues, even though they see me going to meetings, organising stuff, trying to get them to sign up and so on. But they still don't seem to get it. Women just don't want to do it. (I don't think I'll be able to get away with doing a course on Feminism 101.) Don't see the problem, doesn't interest them. And it's not just this company, I've seen it at others.

Also, when it comes down to jobs - a lot of our vacancies at the moment are sales and marketing types. You can't employ more women in tech if you're not recruiting in tech departments. Although there do seem to be more jobs around more generally at the moment, so that's not necessarily the story everywhere.

But that's the problem, isn't i? I don't know any managing director that when asked, wouldn't say that he or she would like a much more diverse organization under them, but when you prod, you realize that they just don't see the unconscious bias, I would even say despite of the training (I'm now thinking of a very prominent CTO at my firm who sweeped in, massacred the diversity statistics in a round of redundancies, and maintains a very macho image up and including the very attractive blonde PA - not that there I is anything wrong with her per se, but it all just adds up to an image that's incredibly off putting to women in his group).

I just can't see how we can keep the pipeline going when the standards are SO different at the level I'm looking at right now (middle management with 15 years of experience). The subtext for me is that apparently, I haven't demonstrated competency at that level yet when the men are being hired based on potential. And usually I'd wondered if maybe the problem is really me, except that research backs me up on this: women have to be constantly proving themselves and are much more often perceived as "not quite ready yet".

Yes, I've seen that before - men are hired for their potential, women for their experience. I have oodles of potential, there are lots of things I can do well, and I have a bit of experience - but it's so difficult to get more. Yet some male colleagues who aren't actually that good, but are in with the right people...

I've also had interviews with a couple of companies where I thought, I am not desperate enough to work here, somewhere that feels very negative from a female perspective. I'm used to being in the minority but I am not doing it just to make a point.

I cannot remember where I read it but it was an article about women stepping up to senior roles and why they are passed over And they mentioned three categories

• can you do the job
• can you manage the team
• do you know how to add value for the business, understand the drivers and really galvanised on that high level basis.

The article said women are typically mentored on the first two thus getting them to middle management the last item not so much. Not saying there isn't bias at the hire level but the bias starts at level of mentors.