A Maltese woman becomes an engineer in 2015, and it hits the headlines

Not only that, but it’s trumpeted as having “broken through the glass ceiling”. Because you know how it is, there are really huge barriers to Maltese women joining the engineering course at the University of Malta. They have to fight an army of men who get preference – as if.

The entry requirements are the same for men as they are for women, and by definition there can be no discrimination on entry and during the course itself on the basis of gender.

So if women are not becoming engineers, it’s because they don’t want to. The reasons for their not wanting to are probably all wrong, but still it’s their choice.

The glass ceiling comes afterwards, in the workplace, when there is very real prejudice and discrimination to contend with.

This young woman is to be congratulated, certainly – but for becoming an engineer, and not for becoming a WOMAN engineer – or worse, a FEMALE engineer.

This kind of thinking and reporting is so backward and backwoods. Enough already. It’s in the league of that other (famous) headline: MOTHER OF THREE ELECTED PN SECRETARY-GENERAL.