[AstralTraveller (David)]

Originally Posted by Bolts_Tweed

As an Engineering lecturer I have seen the number of females entering the Engineering u/g program increase steadily from less than 1% to over 8% presently - still too low but it is refelected in the traditional sciences at our uni. Interestingly the uni medal for best u/g engineering result has gone to a female for 6 of the last 7 years.

I'm very heartened that the number of female engineering students is rising, and the same is true at my uni. The comment about their success is interesting. I expect their is a self-selection of very motivated students into non-traditional areas. Those who are a but more lazy stay with something 'safe'.

Years ago my wife worked in non-traditional jobs (industry, construction) and the experience then was that a woman had to be above average to be accepted. That isn't right. Until a woman has the right to be as mediocre as the bloke next to her there won't be career-opportunity equality.

Meanwhile my wife is out tonight at the meeting of our local astronomy club, and pretty much running the show, while I can't be bothered going. She certainly got interested in astronomy through me and for a long time basically oscillated between astronomy widow and hanger-on. However in the last 5 or so years she has decided to get into astronomy in her own right. We have two scopes and I occasionally let her use one and she is improving her knowledge of astronomy and the sky. She doesn't, however, lurk on IIS.