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Marilyn Davidson: Lost opportunities

Marilyn Davidson is Professor of Work Psychology at Manchester Business School and the author of over 150 academic articles and 19 books, including Women in Management Worldwide.

04 October 2009

By Guest

One nagging thing I still don’t understand about myself is why I didn’t ask my grandparents before they died, more about their childhoods?

“Grandpa (R), you’re 100 now but what was it like being born in 1900 into a world where man couldn’t fly and an abacus was the closest thing to a computer?”

“Grandpa (E), did it hurt when grandma burnt the leeches off your back on your return from the war trenches, as you sat in the tin bath in front of the fire?”

“Nana (R), did you enjoy being one of the first families in Sunderland to own an ‘automobile’ and having to eat ‘below stairs’ with the cooks and the scullery maids?”

“Nana (E), how did you cope as the youngest of twelve in a poor, Derbyshire, farming family, gaining a scholarship to grammar school, but being forced to go away into service at thirteen to become a scullery maid?”

About the author

Marilyn Davidson is Professor of Work Psychology at Manchester Business School and the author of over 150 academic articles and 19 books, including Women in Management Worldwide.