21 April 2016, 6 pm
This really is a day for namby-pambiness. My final engagement is a Women in IP reception. It is, of course, full of imposters. First we have some drinks. Then we share conspiratorial smiles about the men we know are about to get found out, especially those who rose to the top at a time when there were no women to compete with because the women were assumed to be busy sourcing biscuits. It is a strategic error to overlook the competitive potential of the people sourcing your biscuits. A lot of men are about to find this out. Then we have a talk by the STEMettes, who I have long thought have the coolest name ever, and whose job it is to persuade young girls that they really can build careers for themselves in STEM subjects. They have an uphill struggle, of course, what with the Imposter Syndrome, and with a lot of STEM-based careers involving being the only woman in the engine shed and having to socialise with lap dancers (OK, so I am stereotyping, but with less than 15% women in the UK’s STEM careers, compared to a full 28% in that bastion of blokeishness the House of Lords, clearly there is still something going wrong in the technology hubs of our country). The STEMette who speaks to us is full of energy and enthusiasm. But then, she is young, and that’s what you do when you’re young. She is looking for female role models, she says, in STEM careers. Her audience, many of whom are not so young and who have had to stand throughout the event, meet her gaze with a certain weariness. Many of us will be thinking: what kind of role model am I, tired and jaded, just about meeting my billing targets but longing to go home, and an imposter to boot? We are thinking: can an imposter really be a role model?
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