Back in the 80s, Kelly Temporary Services was called Kelly Girl, and the term ‘Kelly Girl’ was frequently a synonym for anyone employed as a temp. Kelly were a brilliant company, who used to hold little get togethers for their temps, and they were fun to work for. It was working as a Kelly Girl paid my rent while I was struggling to make ends meet as a musician. There were quite a few male temps at the time, which is probably one of the reasons that they took ‘girl’ out of the title.
It was during that period that I learned most of my basic computer skills, and I learned them from women – older women (i.e. women who will now be pushing 60). How things have changed. IT is now often regarded in companies as a masculine domain, and there is a myth that if you’re a) a woman and b) above a certain age, there’s some natural reason why you won’t be any good at it.
Since my site advertises itself as being about music, dance and IT, it’s now time for a bit of IT. Not nerdy stuff, but the kind of thing that saves you time to get a life and go and do something interesting.
