On the 9th September this year I was honoured to be asked to present a short 5 minute speech at the Women's Equality Party fund raiser held in the Conway Hall, London. I have received several requests to post the speech for those who were unable to attend to read. So with great pleasure, here it is.
Good evening everyone. I am Simone Wilson. I am the Managing Director and 4th generation owner of the last surviving wholly family owned tap manufacturer in the UK. Yes my little firm makes taps for kitchens and bathrooms. I’ve been in the business since I left school as my parents recognised I had a talent for engineering. One evening I left work as usual and as the radio tuned into PM to hear the day's news, or more accurately the twaddle being spouted in the election campaign, I came in halfway through Catherine’s interview. I was so happy to hear what was being said, and thought YES, about blooming time! Finally I was hearing someone talking common sense. I resolved there and then that this was something I wished to be a part of. A few weeks later I heard the announcement, again on PM, that Sandi was leaving the News Quiz. I knew why even though the reason for her departure was not given. I was overjoyed that she was to be a part of WE too.
The more astute of you will probably have noticed that there is something else about me, something quite irrelevant to the job I do or the fact I am a natural engineer, and that is I am a transwoman.
For years I lived my life as a man, not really appreciating the privilege accorded to me by my birth in that gender. My father - MD before me, the staff, customers, and tradesmen I dealt with on a daily basis accepted I knew what I was talking about. My knowledge was respected. Why was that?, because I was MR WILSON. I never gave the issue of women’s equality a thought as it was something we have always practiced in our business valuing our female employees for their contribution. We paid a rate for the job regardless of the gender of the employee. I thought that was what everyone did. Silly me.
Then I transitioned. And things changed.
I have trained the women in my office to handle most of the technical calls that come in, but on occasion they do need me to take the call over. When they tell the caller, hold on please I’ll pass you to our MD, she’ll know the answer, the response is all too often, “oh another woman don’t you have a man I can speak to?” If the girls simply pass the call to technical, when I answer with my name I get the response, “I was after technical assistance”. Doh! So I enlighten the caller with the fact I have been making taps for 40 years, I have made the tools to cut the brass, I have machined the castings, programmed the machines, assembled every single type of tap we have ever made, that I have been making taps longer than they have been putting them in.
They usually fire a technical question at me, to which I give them an equally technical reply. Oh they say, you DO know what your talking about. Yes I do, I say, so how may I help you sir?
So by following my heart and transitioning I suddenly find myself having to prove that I am competent. That which had been granted by accident of birth had been stripped away. I realise that I too now, like you, have to go the extra mile to prove myself where before I did not. I have run headlong into society’s perception that women are not competent in the traditional male position. Oh, and it isn’t just men who question my knowledge, often women who phone up seeking technical assistance express the same doubts as to my competence.
So why this story? Well the solution to such attitudes is rooted firmly in our core aim number 4 - WE urge an education system that creates EQUAL opportunities for all children and an understanding of why this matters. It is the second part of that statement that is fundamentally important. Only when our children are given the opportunity to learn skills and trades that they are naturally gifted in, regardless of the stereotypical gender role assigned to those skills & trades will society correctly value that skill regardless of gender.
And don’t even start me on equal pay!
When I look at our objectives, I see a common denominator. EDUCATION. Educate people on what they are missing out on by not striving for equality for women. WE are 51% of the population. It is time for women to take their proper place in all areas of our society, to stand shoulder to shoulder with men as equals, and to be respected for the talents and energies WE can unleash.
The more astute of you will probably have noticed that there is something else about me, something quite irrelevant to the job I do or the fact I am a natural engineer, and that is I am a transwoman.
For years I lived my life as a man, not really appreciating the privilege accorded to me by my birth in that gender. My father - MD before me, the staff, customers, and tradesmen I dealt with on a daily basis accepted I knew what I was talking about. My knowledge was respected. Why was that?, because I was MR WILSON. I never gave the issue of women’s equality a thought as it was something we have always practiced in our business valuing our female employees for their contribution. We paid a rate for the job regardless of the gender of the employee. I thought that was what everyone did. Silly me.
Then I transitioned. And things changed.
I have trained the women in my office to handle most of the technical calls that come in, but on occasion they do need me to take the call over. When they tell the caller, hold on please I’ll pass you to our MD, she’ll know the answer, the response is all too often, “oh another woman don’t you have a man I can speak to?” If the girls simply pass the call to technical, when I answer with my name I get the response, “I was after technical assistance”. Doh! So I enlighten the caller with the fact I have been making taps for 40 years, I have made the tools to cut the brass, I have machined the castings, programmed the machines, assembled every single type of tap we have ever made, that I have been making taps longer than they have been putting them in.
They usually fire a technical question at me, to which I give them an equally technical reply. Oh they say, you DO know what your talking about. Yes I do, I say, so how may I help you sir?
So by following my heart and transitioning I suddenly find myself having to prove that I am competent. That which had been granted by accident of birth had been stripped away. I realise that I too now, like you, have to go the extra mile to prove myself where before I did not. I have run headlong into society’s perception that women are not competent in the traditional male position. Oh, and it isn’t just men who question my knowledge, often women who phone up seeking technical assistance express the same doubts as to my competence.
So why this story? Well the solution to such attitudes is rooted firmly in our core aim number 4 - WE urge an education system that creates EQUAL opportunities for all children and an understanding of why this matters. It is the second part of that statement that is fundamentally important. Only when our children are given the opportunity to learn skills and trades that they are naturally gifted in, regardless of the stereotypical gender role assigned to those skills & trades will society correctly value that skill regardless of gender.
And don’t even start me on equal pay!
When I look at our objectives, I see a common denominator. EDUCATION. Educate people on what they are missing out on by not striving for equality for women. WE are 51% of the population. It is time for women to take their proper place in all areas of our society, to stand shoulder to shoulder with men as equals, and to be respected for the talents and energies WE can unleash.
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