Education 2

Throughout many childhood years I wanted to be a doctor, but when the time came to leave school (with adequate qualifications), my father refused to support me in this endeavour saying that he reckoned it would be a waste of time for a woman who would just give it up and have children.

Recognising that this would only arouse my ire (and, boy, you should see me with my ire aroused) he played a very cunning card. He knew how much I had enjoyed maths and science at school and “suggested” that I might enjoy training to be an actuary (of whom at that time there were only 4 females in Scotland and 7 in England). This was very clever as it played to my love of maths and to my competitive nature, so, of course, I “chose” this career.

Accordingly I joined one of the leading Life Assurance companies as an Actuarial student on the princely salary of £280 per annum. This cause some angst among my fellow workers as the usual starting salary was £250 but I got the extra £50 for having Higher Maths.

I went on to pass Part 1A of the actuarial exams and benefited from the fact that so few women took this career path that I was placed on an Actuarial Student pay scale (as in those days other pay scales differentiated between males and females).

Shortly after that I met my then future husband and gave it all up (just as predicted by my father), However whether I would have given up medicine in the same circumstances is a moot point. The Life Assurance offices back then were somewhat misogynist in their attitudes.