Now I am trying not to be miffed about the comments on the
IPKat blog about Women in IP. I am not
doing very well at not being miffed about these either.
Some people are nasty about women. Some other people are nasty about men,
especially although not exclusively the men who are nasty about women. Some people are nasty about CIPA. Everyone is being so nasty. I cannot help thinking that if they would all
just get together for caramel custard tarts like the patent attorneyettes do
then the world would be a better place.
Let us think about CIPA for a moment, dear reader. It has its second ever female President. Its third ever female Vice-President. It has 5 women on its governing Council, out
of 25 alphabetically-labelled but extremely erudite members and me. As a token of appreciation of its second ever
female President, it gave her a set of CIPA cufflinks. It still regards the CIPA tie pin as the
ultimate in Christmas giftware.
BUT. Among the CIPA
staff, there are both women and men, in a variety of roles. When we interview for new recruits, Mr Davies
Tipp-ex®es out the names from the CVs to prevent any kind of
discrimination. (Sometimes he gets
carried away and accidentally Tipp-exes out important information, too; it is
well known that Tipp-ex fumes can impair your mental functions.) Gender does not seem to be an issue there.
And on Council, I have to say I have not experienced
misogyny. Surprise, yes. Outrage, yes.
But to be fair, this was not because I was a woman but because I said
surprising and outrageous things. Loudly.
Now, it is well known that my optimism knows no bounds, and
this is largely because I have little clue what’s going on around me. It is possible that this makes me so
thick-skinned that I have accidentally not noticed anyone disrespecting me for
being a patent attorneyette. But I
actually think not. I actually think the
people governing CIPA are a broad-minded lot when confronted with a
straight-talking woman. They don’t much
like change. They don’t much like
risk. They’re not that keen on the 21st
Century. But women, well, women are the
least of their problems. There are
claims to amend, typos to correct: these are much bigger issues.
Fourth.
ReplyDeleteJN, AD, CH and you.
Or perhaps my memory fails me. Was JN VP?
ReplyDeleteAh. Good point. Not sure. There will be some dusty journal somewhere that records these things. I should check my facts better; sorry.
ReplyDelete