The entire student assembly was left quite speechless after watching this video "Titanic - Project Management Blunders". The video lasted 20 minutes but kept everyone completely riveted until the end. You can click the image below to watch it.
Far from the romanced story line of the cinema blockbuster that we all have heard of, this documentary explains why a tremendous project ended up at the bottom of the sea. "Why did it happen, the ship was deemed unsinkable" says the video. Eight weeks safety trials were reduced down to one single half a day. The sailors in charge of looking out for icebergs were not provided long views and the crew members who had them didn't want to share because of the difference of "ranks" between them. Lessons from the recent projects were never learned etc...
As I was seating there, I couldn't help but think: only men are mentioned in the dealing of this project. The women related to Titanic were only part of the First Class passengers, probably wifes of some of the 53 millionaires on board. This thought was probably prompted by the Irish Times article (Sunday 27th October) announcing the annually anticipated Dublin Web Summit, 30th & 31st October 2013. This article explained that only one in eight technical speakers are women and that it's worrying:
"The dearth of women in tech companies is a global issue, but Ireland is ‘at the bottom of the heap’ in tackling it"
My questions will probably never be answered but I will formulate them anyway. Should women had been involved in the Titanic Board meetings... would Titanic still be afloat? Could women have avoided the catastrophe by diluting the excessive pride and wild dreams brewed by the over excited male hormones in charge?
Linking this with the message kindly given to us by the brilliant people from Harmonics: Women, don't be scared to stand out!
Enough for now with the serious worries and questions. I will leave you today with this very funny video from Harry Henfield: Women know your place!
Are we getting a little sexist,. In Ryan DCU the are plenty of female lecturers & nearly all female staff. Love the Harry Enfield sketch, maybe its because I live with 3 women & my 2% voting rights don't count for much here. I thinks when the cats came along it put me further down the food chain.
ReplyDeleteDefine sexist! Only observing and asking questions :) ... and running away from the Ikea Blair Witch Project :P
DeleteWomen & Children first
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ReplyDeleteGreat blog Gwen, loved the Harry Enfield at the end. On a more serious note, I think you are absolutely correct to be asking questions regarding women's participation in the Dublin Web Summit. With only 12.5% or 1 in 8 technical speakers being women, it says something about women's opportunities in the Irish workforce. Its not surprising really when you look at the make up of the current government, within the cabinet of 30 Ministers and Ministers of State, only 4 of them are women. This equates to only 13%. Its a very sad statistic in a modern country such as ours, but it seems to be across the board for the senior posts. Not being sexist, the statistics just speak for themselves.
ReplyDeleteThanks Laura! Love your comment! We need to work towards better statistics.
DeleteFrom Ottalie on Facebook: Hi Gwen couldn't seem to leave a comment so I'll just say here Plenty of food for thought there.Isn't it ironic how we perceive society to have moved on yet glass ceilings do very much exist. when you look at the main decision makers in all aspects of government &business they are mainly men - room for change I'm sure . I can only speak for myself but once motherhood entered my world my priorities changed. Many women themselves argue you can have it all -work & life balance but the truth is you can't -one must suffer if the other takes priority. My Nana was a great lady super intelligent ahead of her time & a wonderful homemaker . I always kept her up to date on educational accomplishments & she always was delighted with my success. She said jokingly to me once that no matter how successful Id be that inevitably I'd end up washing dishes at the kitchen sink. How right she was. Squashed in 1 hr with ikea project at 6am this morning I've just cleaned he house from top to toe & we are off to carve the pumpkins for Halloween. C'est la vie!!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog Gwen. I gotta say I am just blown away by women, forever in awe of you. I was wondering when this issue would surface and ironically it has as we saw the titanic go down. Incredible chain of events. And to be honest as a man, I agree with you, women should play a much more active role in politics, economics and business. The simple fact of the matter is we need you.
ReplyDeleteWe should suggest Harry Enfield for a new video "Men know your place!" Ta!
DeleteHi Gwen, Great post, and certainly food for thought. With regard to the role of women in business and would this disaster have been averted if there had been women involved, it is really an impossible question to answer.
ReplyDeleteWe know that the hasty decisions and changes to the project were made because of severe financial pressure and also the arrogance and pride of the project manager. What we don't know is how a woman would have reacted under the same conditions.
If you observe this disaster from different view points you come up with different questions. What I mean is, you can see this as a gender inequality issue and blame the lack of level headed women involved in the project as the cause. Or you can look at this as an issue of capitalistic forces and take the view that even if women had been involved the business pressures were so great that they too would have compromised the safety of the project, such is the force of capitalism.
Hope that makes sense?