Ada Lovelace Day

Today,  don't wonder 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 treatmentand 
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
we hold up (at least) half the sky

LMC 15 Oct 2012