A web site advocating women in trade giving questionable advice?

kfh said:

I hope the authors have good professional indemnity insurance.

I think you'd struggle proving that they owed a duty of care to the reader, the site is not claiming to offer professional training or advice. There is so much misleading or downright dangerous advice on the internet that I would imagine the courts' attitude would be that it it is not reasonable to trust anything written in a random blog. And this page does mention a few times "take professional advice". 

Incidentally I think this page must have been updated since some of the comments above - I can't see any reference to black and white wire?  

More generally, I can see the point of the actual service they are offering - putting people in touch with female tradespeople - I know a number for female friends and relations who are not comfortable having male tradespeople in the house, whether because of (rightly or wrongly) concerns for their personal safety or (rightly or wrongly but sadly often rightly) because they don't want to be condescended to. So this company has seen a market need and are having a go at filling it, good for them.

But yes, maybe they should concentrate on that service rather than also trying to publish advice,,,but it feels like their hearts are in the right place. 

Andy Millar said:

I think you'd struggle proving that they owed a duty of care to the reader

I entirely agree.

Andy Millar said:

or (rightly or wrongly but sadly often rightly) because they don't want to be condescended to

Just like the women in the local GPs' practice!

Well I got no e-mail, but I have tried a one-word response such as, "sex", "gender", "queer", etc., which get through individually, but I still feel that I was censored.

Zs said:

Chris, try again! Lovely to see you tried to respond

Here goes!

I find the whole sex/gender thing very puzzling. We now have, "batters" 'cos women cannot be, "batsmen", but that brings to mind fish and chips and Yorkshire puddings. In Britain, women want to be, "actors"; but in France, women insist on feminine nouns for trades which were traditionally all male. So, we have, "électricien" and, "électricienne".

I can see that there would be good grounds for complaint if a customer called up, "Zs electrical" and then sent away Zs because she is female.

At risk of appearing to be political, I think that Dianne Abbott (whose politics I mostly do not share, but whom I greatly admire) missed a point. Just as people of colour are readily identifiable, so are women (and men). So, your Zs electrician can be male or female, black or white. The web-site will reveal neither.

At one time, I had a mother, a wife, a daughter, and two granddaughters. I could hardly be sexist!

It has indeed been updated and is now quite a bit less wrong -  I wonder if  a query from Zs scared them enough to get a UK sparks to edit it  ;-)

If so, good.

I agree on the absent  duty of care thing - free advice, good or bad, is legally taken very much less seriously  than that which is paid for.

Mike.

mapj1 said:

perhaps house care for an aged relative who does not want to be undressed by a member of the opposite sex

I cannot respond to this. Why? !!!

mapj1 said:

Competence is a strange thing.

My conservatory renovations are ongoing. The joiners are excellent; the carpenters are rough as a badger's bottom. Mrs P does not know how bad the carpenters are, but walloping in screws, breaking them, and just leaving them is a sure sign of incompetence.

When they go, I have to follow them and rectify what I can.

I know that they are incompetent because I am competent. Mrs P does not know that they are incompetent, but she is very much a lay-person, so could not be competent.

Mrs P's gardener (who is doubtlessly competent at gardening) summed it up: "What you need is craftsmen, not carpenters."

The one word answers do feel a bit like shouting, as they are context free and easy to misinterpret, especially if you (I) have enabled email notification so there is no context (prior comment) to the single word response I would see.

There are a few 'awkward' discussions happening where multiple issues are conflated under very common broad phrasings, are being exaggerated by algorithms searching for "engagement" (aka conflicts & arguments), and by certain media / groups. (I'll avoid trying to mention any of the 'political' ones, with `climate change` being possibly one where we can 'stand back' on the technical portions!)

IIRC, its a broad D1/D2/E1/E5 competence / commitment problem that's easy to fall into ;-)

Zs said:

A quick answer to where I have been Ross...

Good to see you back!

Can't remember how long ago it was that we last spoke, but I do remember I sent you a photo of a cable spiking gun, as you were wondering what one looked like!

- Ross