[sdiy] Female sdiy'ers

[Veronica Merryfield]

Time to chip in. I've been pondering how to contribute to this thread  
and find Scotts input useful.

My sister and I were raised by parents who encouraged us to be us,  
although I don't think they were so happy about some of the things  
that resulted in, but that's a different story.

I think one of the biggest influences was their decision not to have a  
television!

We were encouraged to get involved with daily life by both parents. We  
learnt home skills from our mother and home skills from our father :)  
We both learnt to cook, sew, iron, clean, shop and other home  
economics as well as plumbing, wiring, building, car mechanics and so  
on. Mum was strong in sciences and math, Dad was an artist and  
mechanic, both had had their troubles when younger and wanted us to be  
ourselves.

I think this is more key than what an education system at degree level  
can offer. The state schools we went too had some pretty teachers for  
what was an underfunded system perpetual threatened by closure which  
did happen. Both of us performed well enough although my sister was  
better at language than I was.

I did electronic and electrical engineering at university (6 girls in  
a class of 120), my sister did geological and civil engineering (4 in  
80). I went into embedded electronics and software, my sister went  
into mine consultancy.

We are both musicians playing an array of instruments, some we play  
better than others but we can get something from most. I make  
instruments, mostly basses but I will tackle almost anything and like  
to take commissions from people that have disabilities that make  
playing conventional designs. My sister restores, maintains and off  
road races land rovers and other 4x4. I volunteer at the local  
industrial heritage society firing a steam loco and now training as  
engineer (and there is a lady down island at another outfit doing the  
same). I also 'play' with miniature livesteam railroads and am off to  
Train Mountain in a few days to attend an international gathering  
(where I meet with other ladies too and there is zero gender issues).  
I also design, build and fly radio control gliders (this was hard to  
break into in the UK mostly model shops treatment). My sister and I  
have volunteered with homelessness, additions, old people, hospitals  
and animal rescues. My sister is currently a volunteer councilor, I  
have lots of children, and adults, come to the farm where I help them  
find themselves.

I got into electronics from music messing with analog synths. Now I  
spend mow SDIY time with software instruments but am working on a  
fretless bass and synth system which sees me working in analogue, FPGA  
and software.

We both still purchase lego for ourselves by the way :)

Our work careers have been dominated by being in the minority although  
we have both seen that change in the last 10 years. I moved to Canada  
four years ago and my sister has stayed in the UK. I saw a marked  
difference in the male to female ratio here. Whilst working in the  
cell phone industry I also noticed a difference in scandinavian  
countries and Israel where the ratio is much higher. My sister is  
usually on her own and often ends up on site trying to get the guys to  
do various things. She has often resorted to running the machinery  
herself and is pretty good with an excavator! I got my own for the  
farm a year or so ago and am catching her up :)

We both cook, sew, garden, fix the house, have everybody elses  
children, pets, have televisions we rarely watch and partners that  
seem unperturbed by all this although sometimes I thing they don't  
ride the wake so well :)

I think in general men and women can do the same things. I think each  
individual is individual and equally capable but not always able to  
find that within them for all sorts of reasons. I find too many people  
have so much baggage that keeps them doing somethings and not doing  
others and very few that have found themselves. It is more likely this  
that makes the biggest impact and seems to be the hardest to resolve.

Not sure if this helps any but it is a precis of my perspective.