whether women do science and technology
today, on Ada Lovelace day, we celebrate
our community by honouring those
who helped us know
I draw a line from a time before
I ever thought of being an engineer,
Vaughan King inspired me
to use learning to support my world
when all else was so chaotic
Then with feminism came
the glorious Women in Manual Trades
like me they'd battled through skillcentres
borne the pain of unfair treatment
and raised wild songs to keep us strong
Peggy Seeger made my anthem
'I'm gonna be an engineer'
and I didn't believe it
until , 27 years later,
I finally became chartered
So now the line goes on
my goddaughter, Alexia, in France,
is studying engineering
an Olympian of maths
and of champagne physics
Today don't wonder whether women
are scientists and engineers
follow Ada Lovelace blogs,
and look around you
we hold up half the sky
LMC24Mar10
This is lovely and inspiring. Happy Ada Day.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking we hold up more than half the sky?
Thanks for your kind comment. Two reasons for not saying 'more than' though I used to have a great Chinese poster saying that on my wall at work.
ReplyDelete1. scanning in the poem;
2. I thought about my husband, who does so much (more than half) our housework, as he works shifts, while I'm working, studying etc. and thought I didn't want to claim a greater half for myself, just to evoke it.