A womens' place

This seminar was at the end of a very feminine focused day that I had chosen and was most looking forward too. To have a panel of highly influential people discussing ‘A woman’s place’ lead by our own deputy Vice Chancellor, who all had their own personal experiences to draw on as to what they thought ‘A woman’s place’ was, could only be an influential session.

There were three panellist two were female and one male (who I thought was incredibly brave, but had a right to be there).  Professor Jane Long was leading the panel and gave a great introduction as to who these three panellists were and their roles they had done. Pen at the ready, I was ready to take as many notes as I could. With the exception of a few key ideas that were put forward I was really disappointed with the seminar. Professor Long asked a few questions here and there but then seems to sit back and let it get carried away with the dialogue and become more of a panellist herself rather than someone who was supposed to control the conversation and guide it in a way that was relevant.

The first panellist was amazing in all she had accomplished, especially when she was dominated by men in the work place and had to ‘prove’ her self-worth. I would have liked to have heard more about her story of breaking barriers (which she doesn’t see that she did but more so she just thinks that they came to accept her), and what she thought of for upcoming women scientists such as herself. The third panellist was the only male and raised a few good points of interest when it came to not only the males’ perspective, but where males are at a disadvantage and how the discrimination can be worse for men. However the second panellist dominated 80% of the seminar and while her accomplishes were great and she did raise a few interesting points of the new feminist movement that happened in the late 1990s, she  constantly had an opinion to everyone else point and would either interrupt others or keep talking with her own point once they were done.

In all honesty I lost interest about ¾ of the way through that the baby playing on the floor beside us became more interesting. At one point the mother started breast feeding and I thought to myself that this woman knows her place and she should be up there.

There was no control over the panel and as a deputy Vice chancellor I really expected her to have much better interview skills than she had. Overall the seminar I feel was nearly a complete waste of my time as the main thing I learnt was how NOT to conduct a panel interview, which as an undergraduate you already know how to do.