TED’S teaching tips: “Has there been any change in sex stereotyping in Britain (male nurses, women engineers)?” I’m sorry, but this is either sexism or bad grammar, and I don’t expect to see either in the TES Friday magazine (November 12).
Why are nurses “male” and engineers “women”? Why are we not accorded the grammatically-correct “female engineers”.
You can call me a female engineer, a white engineer, a tall engineer or even an irritable engineer, but I’m afraid I find “woman engineer” incredibly offensive.
Of course I realise that TES is not the only offender. Even the Women’s Engineering Society’s official publication is called The Woman Engineer (which is why I have never joined). However, maybe your sterling and well-respected publication could raise a little support for “female engineers”.
Lucy Connelly
Software engineer
lucy@connelly.free-online.co.uk
