Why blame the weather men? and Volcanoes

I just cannot see the point of it. They seem to get it about right round here though they did forecast some rain today and it hasn't materialised yet. However the night is still young. It isn't an exact science and I can't imagine it's likely to be in the near future.

Being interested in volcanoes I was intrigued to see the volcano which replaced Krakatoa when it blew itself to bits in 1883 is active again and looks like following in father's footsteps. Let's hope there is no loss of life this time. Some extremely strange people are saying it's mankind's fault and this is down to global warming. So presumably man made global warming was alive and well and living near Java in 1883? Sometimes comments on newspaper stories are just as interesting as the article itself.

Tracing Uncle George

I now have birth and death certificates for Uncle George - full name George James Pepper Slator. The Slator is his surname and Pepper is his mother's maiden name and probably his paternal grandfather's surname as well. He was born in Crowland, Lincolnshire on 4th March 1918 and died on 19th June 1926 at home in Dunston - a small village not far from Lincoln - of chronic gastritis and Myocarditis heart failure. There was no post mortem and death was certified by the GP - so presumably it was expected. So all this time I've been cheerfully telling doctors that there has been no one in my immediate family with heart problems under the age of 40 I've actually been wrong!

I would assume though that perhaps he'd been suffering from either or both of those conditions for some time as my father implied he'd always been in poor health. He could perhaps have been Downs Syndrome as I think they often have heart and digestive problems - which could account for why my father was never keen to talk about him. At least I know a bit more about an uncle who was born and died before I was born. Fascinating.

Now I want to try and find out who my great great grandfather's second wife was and what happened to my great grandmother after 1891.

The gender pay gap

I'm not sure we should be surprised by the 'shock' announcement today that women earn over 20% less than men. We're not talking equal - or unequal - pay for equal work but the simple fact women do lower paid jobs than men. When I was working only 35% of my grade were women. If you went to the next grade up only 20% were women. But if you looked at lower grades a large majority were women.

Is this caused by lack of family friendly policies? In my particular employer - no very definitely not so. There was part time working, term time working, annual hours working and flexi time not to speak of paid time off for domestic emergencies and maternity leave as well as a raft of opportunities for unpaid leave and career breaks. We did not have a long hours culture either.

So why do women not earn as much as men? In my work women gravitated to certain areas of the organisation - customer service, welfare, HR etc. What were seen as the macho jobs - like the one I had just before I retired went to men in the main. But the macho jobs attract higher grades and consequently more money. By the time I retired I was working in a virtually all male environment and the culture is different. Women are seen as far less likely to be willing and able to do the job. But much of this is a false perception put about consciously or unconsciously by the men doing the job.

The work I did was seen as being results focused with an emphasis on confrontation which put off many women from even thinking about it as a career choice. In actual fact I got excellent results and without any unpleasant confrontations so the job does not have to be done in the same old way. I suspect in many organisations the same perceptions apply to the better paid jobs and as a result women don't apply for them and if they do they seem to be invisible because no one can picture them doing the job.

All the employment tribunals which involve high powered and apparently capable,
confident women complaining about the prevailing laddish culture and the endemic bullying really speaks for itself. If there is only one woman in a male environment there are always going to be these problems - until the culture changes because more women get these jobs which have always gone exclusively to men.

I am more than capable of standing up for myself in most circumstances and I'm not averse to making a scene if that's what it takes but I found the masculine ambiance at work a shade daunting. I was on good terms with all my colleagues but I found the lack of another woman to talk to on a regular basis made me feel isolated at times and I suspect many women in similar situations feel the same - or imagine they would feel the same - which is why they don't consider such jobs.

Just a few thoughts.

Misogynies

I came across, by accident, a little book by Joan Smith called Misogynies: Reflections on Myths and Malice. Well worth reading even though it was published in the mid 90s as it is still relevant today. I'm about half way through it at the moment. Once chapter is a deconstruction of Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent - which I haven't read; and another is about the film Jagged Edge - which I have seen. Both chapters suggest there is an underlying misogyny in both works which is taken for granted by both readers and cinema audiences alike.

But what horrified me most was the description of a court case in which a man killed his wife's lover. He only got three years for manslaughter as he'd been provoked into doing it and was only trying to resume his rightful control of his wife. There is one sentence spoken by the man when questioned about his wife being 'allowed' to go out to work, he said he'd thought it best for her to use 'her bright little mind'. How bloody patronising can you get? The case was in the late 80s not, as you might have expected, in the nineteenth century.

Browsing the Internet as I do I've found there seems to be a growing backlash against women which seems to encompass a sheer virulent hatred of all women. You've only got to read almost any news story which involves women to see the comments made against the sex. You get all the old prejudices coming out such as women should stay at home and look after their kids and stop taking jobs away from the men; education has been feminised so that's why boys don't do well at school; women are always devious and untrustworthy and they only want men for their money. If these comments were only appearing on 'tabloid' newspaper web sites I wouldn't be too concerned but they seem to be appearing on the broadsheets as well. A very worrying trend.

I found a recent story about women not putting enough money into pensions brought out the worst in so many men. There were comments such as: women marry and divorce and get their money that way so they don't need to bother about pensions; women expect to be supported by men; women don't deserve pensions; women are always spending money so they don't have any to put into pensions etc etc.

Something I read recently suggested that misandry - hatred of men by women - doesn't have the same support and never has had. Men irritate and annoy women but in the main women seem more able to say well I don't like that man but it's because of the sort of person he is rather than because he's a man.

Interesting times.

All quiet on the domestic front

The boiler is fixed now - fingers crossed - it was just an issue of timing as it wasn't firing up quick enough after the fan comes on. Naturally we both keep listening to make sure it's all right but that will wear off in a couple of days.

For some reason I was thinking this morning about a particularly useless comment a manager once put on my annual report - 'Jill should learn to see herself as others see her.' There wasn't anything to qualify this statement or any particular incident highlighted and when I challenged it I was told that if I didn't know then no one could tell me. Right so you're saying I have faults but you're not prepared to tell me what they are so that I can put them right? Well yes. In which case it's a good thing I've been moved onto another job then isn't it?

If I could see myself as others see me I'd be probably the only person in the world who can. You can usually see what effect your words and actions have on other people but to perceive yourself completely from everyone else's point of view is virtually impossible. I was always being told in my last but one job that I was too unselfish and always went out of the way to help colleagues to the detriment of my own interests at times. Not sure that's how I see myself and certainly I'm regarded as slightly selfish at home - which I don't accept because the comment is usually made when I won't immediately do what I've been asked to do!! Bit like a man's definition of a lesbian being anyone who won't go to bed with him! The truth as ever is somewhere in the middle probably.

I prefer to remember that not all criticism is valid and you accept it or not as you choose.

Books and Amazon

I have mentioned before that I get free books from Amazon as part of what is known as the Vine Programme. Every third Thursday in the month Vine Voices are sent a newsletter from which they can choose two items. This is targetted to their previous purchases and selected from the items which manufacturers and publishers allow them to have free. I buy and review more fiction than non-fiction and I hardly ever buy software or electronic gadgets from Amazon so I'm mainly offered fiction. Which suits me as free books are not to be sneezed at.

The fourth Thursday in the month we get another newsletter which contains everything left - could be books, DVDs, computer bits, software, domestic gadgets, hairdryers etc. We can choose another two items from that one as well - though sometimes they make it four instead of two. The more desirable items tend to disappear first and it's very much the luck of the draw at 8.00pm who gets what. Personally I will only pick items I'm interested in and will use or read - others seems to look just at the value.

You have to review 75% of the items you've chosen before you can pick any more - which is fair enough. There is no compulsion to review favourably so you can say what you think and the majority take a pride in their reviews and spend a fair amount of time composing them. You're not allowed to sell items you receive or to give them away so in the end you could run out of space!

Recently Vine has started to receive some bad publicity - almost certainly from people who haven't been invited to join. Such people are saying Vine Voices always give 5 star reviews and that it's all a con to foist rubbish on unsuspecting customers. But there are also people who are Vine Voices complaining they don't get offered high value items and others do. To me this is typical of society today. People want everything to be 'fair'. Why? Life isn't fair - get over it.

I usually write very calm and considered posts on the Amazon Vine forums but I've got annoyed and suggested to the whingers that if they don't like it - leave. No one is holding a gun to their head. Vine is how it is. The only people who can change it are Amazon and I don't think they should listen to the moaners - who actually seem to be in a minority anyway. As it is they're spoiling it for the rest of us. I like Vine because it means I get a chance to try new books that I might not otherwise come across. With publishers such as Granta, Faber and Bloomsbury participating it can only be a good thing for everyone.

Now the boiler is playing up . . .

Having had the boiler serviced the other day it is now cutting out every few hours. I am plagued with domestic machines going wrong! Boiler man is coming out tomorrow to fix it. As we only need it for hot water at present and there is an electric back up with our large box of tricks in the 'airing cupboard' also known as a Boilermate, it's not really a problem but it needs fixing.