Council for Education in the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth Secretariat: naratives from around the Commonwealth. I was born in England in the late 60s into a comfortable university educated family with an English teacher mother and chemist father. I was the youngest of three and, I think for reasons of nature rather than nurture, was very slow to develop β this was in stark contrast to my elder brother who was considered to be exceptionally bright. My parents chose for me to attend the less prestigious secondary school, a different school to my siblings, because there was less streaming of abilities and so they believed I would have more chance of catching up.
This worked for me and in my teens I developed a theoretical interest in and aptitude for maths and sciences. However I lacked any practical confidence. My father tinkered with an old boat and did some DIY but I do not remember that he encouraged any of us to get involved. I also found it difficult to conform at school and I think that one of my secrets for success later in a male dominated world is that, as often the only woman, I was no longer expected to conform.
However, in the 6 th form I floundered again as the only girl in the Physics class with a sarcastic male teacher and no class friends and eventually dropped out with glandular fever. I did however return the following year determined to prove to the teachers that I could do it and, much to their surprise, got good grades and a place at York University to study Theoretical Physics. The real turning point for me was when I spent a life changing week at the Centre for Alternative Technology in North Wales.
The whole ethos of the place made me realise I wanted to do something useful and practical, but I also had an important conversation with the girlfriend of one of the volunteers who complained that she was not being allowed to learn how to use the lathe. She believed that if she had been a man they would have let her use it but, because women are seen as inherently unpractical, she was not considered safe. Without knowing it she was talking about me and so shortly after I switched to the much more practical Engineering Design and Appropriate Technology course at the University of Warwick.
It came as quite a shock when I started the course and it fully sank in that I was now studying engineering, a rather practical course for a technophobe. There were only 15 students in my year β 3 of whom were women β with a high proportion of mature and foreign students who were also there because they wanted to do something useful and practical.
