Trust me, women’s pain must be taken seriously
RUSSELL LEADBETTER Selections from The Herald Picture Store
IT IS Endometriosis Awareness Month once again. I have used this space to write about the condition before and no doubt will again. Goodness knows, my dodgy womb tissue isn’t going anywhere soon.
You will have heard of endometriosis, a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in places it shouldn’t. It is not a rare condition (one in 10 people with periods are estimated to suffer from it) but it is difficult to live with, with its headline symptoms being excruciating pain and infertility.
Over the next few weeks, people will share their most harrowing stories. People will quote some grim statistics at you, like the fact that it takes an average of eight years to get a diagnosis, or 58% of women in the UK visited their GP more than 10 times to get one.
Research has also suggested that endometriosis increases the chance of miscarriage by 76%. And, between January and October 2019, more than 100 women in the UK had taken their own lives due to endometriosis. So why is it not taken seriously? If I had a fiver for every uninterested male doctor who lectured me about periods then I probably could have afforded to go private. I returned time after time, documenting symptoms and explaining how I had spent an entire day curled up in a ball on the floor wondering if I was dying. I was sent away every time.
Realising I had endometriosis
If I had a fiver for every male doctor who lectured me about periods I could have afforded to go private
was completely accidental. I was kicked up to the hospital after a routine smear test. When the gynaecologist there told me she thought I had endometriosis, I cried with relief. Not because there was any cure or respite but because I had spent years feeling like I was either defective or going mad and it was the first time in five years that someone had made my struggle feel validated.
It is clear that there is work to be done to stop normalising women’s pain. We are told period pain is natural (doctor-speak for put up and shut up). Drummed into us from a young age, we believe but, more worryingly, so do some medical professionals. I was well into my 20s before my experience was not ‘normal’.
It seeps into our professional and personal lives too. Coming into work even though you are doubled over in pain because the alternative is being quietly regarded as being unreliable. Dragging yourself out to see a friend because you cancelled the last time and you know that they don’t quite get it.
I suppose there are reasons to feel hopeful (chiefly because I’m using a national newspaper column to chat away about the lining of my womb), but we are getting nowhere fast. The treatment of women’s pain and what we are just expected to endure is so deep-rooted that it cannot be unlearned overnight.
The lack of diagnostic and treatment methods make endo a slow, painful and mentally draining journey. But it would be a lot easier if you didn’t have persuade a dozen medical professionals that it isn’t all in your head first.
ON A Saturday morning in April 1956 the Duke of Gloucester unveiled a memorial to members of the Scots Guards who had “accomplished their warfare” since the formation of the regiment in 1642.
A memorial window, designed by Harry K Stammers, incorporated the badges of the regiment’s companies, such as the galley of Lorne, the Salamander, the Griffin, and the Unicorn.
The duke, who was on a visit to Glasgow with Princess Alexandra of Kent, was colonel of the Scots Guards.
Looking on were detachments of the 1st and 2nd battalions, commanded by Major NPD Macdonald of the Isles and Major GS Nickerson, and representatives of the Scots Guards Association, some of whom had travelled from London and Leeds.
Reported the Glasgow Herald: “The unveiling and dedication were succeeded by the sounding, by Scots Guards trumpeters, of the Last Post, by the march of a piper through the nave playing ‘The Flowers o’ the Forest’, and by an answering reveille from the trumpeters.
“The ceremony was preceded by the laying-up of colours presented to the 1st Battalion in 1937 by King George VI and last carried on parade at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in 1951.
“The slow march, ‘The Garb of Old Gaul’, was played as the colour party advanced through the nave and chancel, presented the colours to the battalion’s commanding officer, Lieutenantcolonel TFR Bulkeley, who presented them to the duke. He delivered them for safe-keeping into the hands of [Rev] Dr [Nevile] Davidson,” minister of the Cathedral.
Later, at dinner with the Glasgow branch of the association, the duke said the service was one of the most impressive he had taken part in for a long time. Dr Davidson said that for more than 300 years the regiment had served in many countries and on many continents, bringing new lustre not only to their own reputation but also to the prestige of the empire.
THE skills gaps that hinder Scotland’s economic growth are well documented. As noted in the Scottish Government’s Future Skills Action Plan, a shortage of technical skills can delay the development of new products, services, and technologies. Such shortages are fundamentally a result of a misalignment between supply and demand: we lack people with the right sorts of skills.
This problem is particularly acute in the technology sector, where up to three-quarters of Scotland’s IT employers report difficulty in finding workers with the right skillsets. Whether through retraining existing staff or nurturing new talent, employers urgently require skilled software developers. Moreover, employers are eager to engage with a more diverse workforce, especially in the tech sector, where only 20 per cent of workers are women.
Graduate apprenticeships offer one solution, by providing learners with the opportunity to gain a university degree while simultaneously working for an employer. Designed with employers for employers, graduate apprenticeships are available across Scotland in a range of sectors with critical skills needs.
At the University of Glasgow, our Graduate Apprenticeship in Software Engineering builds upon the Skills Development Scotland framework for software development apprenticeships. Designed in close consultation with employers, this new approach to teaching computing science brings the discipline in line with other vocational subjects such as medicine.
As part of our year-long industry consultation, we determined what skills an apprentice software engineer would need to be productive from the outset. This required us to rethink the structure of a traditional computing science degree and develop an entirely new work-based curriculum.
Recognising that apprentices will encounter many different technologies, we concentrate on the underlying concepts required to pick up any programming language. As a result, our apprentices are ready to start contributing in the workplace before the end of their first year.
Later, our apprentices choose from a full range of computing science modules, aligned with their employer’s needs and their role within the organisation. We also offer specialisations in high demand areas including data science and cyber security. By the time they graduate, our apprentices will have an honours degree, four years of work experience, a detailed knowledge of the workplace, and an education tailored to their job. Our graduates will be more diverse, too, with the apprenticeship attracting a healthier proportion of female students. Our female trailblazers encourage more women to take up software engineering, with several of our apprentices featuring as role models in events like the Ada Scotland Festival.
A work-based programme can also help widen participation in university-level computing science education more broadly. To this end, we work closely with employers and colleges to ensure that we can recognise a range of prior learning and experience when considering applications.
If we are to come back stronger from the economic damage inflicted by the pandemic, an appropriately skilled workforce is essential. Programmes like our Graduate Apprenticeship in Software Engineering will be critical in ensuring that employers have access to a pipeline of skilled, diverse, and experienced talent, both now and into the future.