Finding the chase and cutting to it

I was born in Ipswich, Suffolk in 1973. The year Margaret Thatcher became prime minister, I watched the news with my parents not really understanding why it was such a big deal. Mrs Thatcher was not only a grammar school kid, she was a woman.
If we look at the prime ministers of the past 15 years (Mr Blair came in while I was in my final year of university), the majority have attended independent schools (Eton educated Mr Cameron, Fettes College was Mr Blair alma mater and Mr Brown was a student at the Kirkcaldy High School comprehensive although at the time it had a fast track scheme for the exceptional students like Gordon Brown).
So, I have the comprehensive curse. Suffolk small town comprehensive curse, where having a passion for history and maths did not suggest anything more than accountancy or tax inspector.
I also live in a community where few school girls grow up wanting a serious career and few educated women succeed in the locally run businesses.
I tried to buck that trend by joining a large multi-national but where London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow have women in the top teams, that does not happen in Ipswich for my company. Recently I mentioned the fact that only 8% of women earn £40K or more per annum and a couple of my local male work colleagues suggested that women did not want to earn that much.
This is not true.
Neither is the fact that women returning from maternity leave do not wish to have a meaningful career. These two men felt that the majority of women were not interested and in fact many preferred to stay at home.
When I talk to women who did get as far as A levels, this is also not the case but the low wages they are often taking home and on-going commitments mean that many do not see the point. Women earning a lot in Ipswich tend to be GPs or in education which have understood how to retain and progress female career women. It’s beginning to change in my company but it’s taken a long time and having got past child producing age, it does seem to be changing faster.
On my return to work having had my son, my male manager was stunned that I had actually done some meaningful work on my first day back from maternity leave!
In many ways I have been lucky, when I was given an opportunity to run a team that had been run by a man earning £20K more than I was salaried, I did get a solicitor to help me fight to close that pay gap – all the men, many of whom joined the company after me and were operating at the same grade as I was were on a minimum of £7k per annum more than I was getting. Money allows many opportunities, including more time. Out-sourcing means I have more time.
And time is the valuable piece. I travelled 30K miles last year not just for work but for all the commitments including getting my insulin to keep me alive. On average I spend 1 hour a day in the car – I live only 18 miles from work.
So why am I not running for parliament this time round? Well, to be honest, I would love to. I am an engineer with a passion for politics but I have very little support from friends to do this and a woman is a hell of a risk. Possibly a software engineer more than that.
Unlike the men of my age, education and intelligence levels, I have not been encouraged to fast track for my career allowing me the financial cushion to take the risk personally. If I take a year or more off to develop a career in politics, who is to say I would ever get to the same level in industry again?