Mysterious

I'm not sure how long I have to write this today as I have to go out on a client visit shortly.

I was awoken by a phone call at 4 am last night. I have no idea who it was. It stopped before I got there and there was no number. I thought there had been a family emergency or something, but no emergency e-mail was waiting for me this morning, so I guess we should put it down to a wrong number.

There's a report on the BBC web site today that claims a study shows that women are being pushed into careers that are traditionally thought of as female. This kind of thing annoys me. Don't get me wrong here, I'm all for women having the the same career opportunities as men, but just because women tend to choose nursing and not tyre and exhaust fitting, it doesn't mean that anyone is forcing women into anything. It may just be that women don't like tyre and exhaust fitting. Men and women are different, and it goes further than standing up to pee and bumps in the sweater.

The new study claims that only 22 women took up a plumbing apprenticeship in England last year, compared to 3,000 men. Why is that so abhorrant? It's not as if plumbing is an elite career that requires a university education and 7 years training. If one considers the medical profession, which is an elite career and does require extensive training and a university education, I would suggest that women are welcomed in the same way men are. The same could be said about the legal profession. I would also suggest that many parents would be very pleased if their daughter chose medicine or law as a career.

So are women being pushed into jobs that are traditionally feminine and being elbowed out of traditionally male dominated careers? Or is the feminist movement attempting to push women into careers that they don't want in an effort to prove their own 'we can do anything' philosophy. I know that sounds sexist but it's really not. If women want to go into plumbing that's great. If they don't, who cares? Click!

The above was written at lunchtime. It's now 10:25pm. The client vistit this afternoon turned into an exercise in futility. I was supposed to go there to find out about some software and produce a user manual for it. It seems that they couldn'tactually find any software however and I have some doubts as to whether it actually exists at all. What a waste of time. I also have to work this weekend to complete a motherboard manual and I really could have done without the pointless excursion.

Nothing else to report.