Dazed and confused

Spent this afternoon in Equality and Diversity Board where we spent the first hour having a very interesting discussion about one of the University KPIs which is concerned with raising the number of female Professors. One of the most interesting discussion was why there is such a marked difference between the percentage of female academic professors, and the percentage of female professorial equivalent staff in the professional services which is much higher.  Is it the pressure of research and the metrics used in promotions, or different practices we have, or  the large pool we have for applicants? One of the biggest problems we have, and it will take a long time to solve, is the pool of female applicants in some disciplines - there just aren't enough women taking science subjects at school. Personally I can't understand it - science is brilliant and was my favourite subject, so what's changed? The way it's taught these days which just doesn't inspire people? I was so inspired by my sciecne teachers at school - especially Biology. I used to take roadkill into school - anything dead I found by the side of the road  - and  skin it and cure the skin, then boil the rest to extract the bones, and wire them together to make a skeleton. My favourite was a stoat skin that I used to wear in my beanie hat. Hmmm, maybe it was just me that was weird....

This might be my last peregrine picture for this year as one of them flew the nest this morning. Landed on a ledge of the church, where it looked a little dazed and confused at what it had done....