Gail was born in England in 1944, just before the end of the Second World War. After leaving school she was offered a place to do medical radiography at a Post Graduate Medical School in London, but being under the age of 18 she was restricted from working with Radiation, so she got a job as a darkroom technician at Westland Helicopters. At the age of 18 in 1961, she decided to stay at Westland Helicopters as a trainee Radiographer. By 1964, she had worked for two different Companies and obtained MOD approvals in Radiography of Dense Metal Castings. Also in 1964 she turned down a scholarship to study Politics, Economics and Social Studies at Loughborough University. In 1966 she worked at Palmer Aero Products as Assistant Radiologist and obtained further approvals in Light Alloy Castings. She also joined the Non Destructive Testing Society of Great Britain in the same year. In 1968 she became Chief Radiologist in charge of a Part III test house with Pantak Ltd, she also stood as a Political Candidate in the local elections, got married to Pat Long and obtained further approvals in Dense Metal and Light Alloy welds. By 1969 she was London Branch Secretary for the NDT Society and became Radiologist and southern area manager for a large international inspection company. At this time she also became a guest tutor at the Welding Institute School of Applied for the Interpretation of Weld Defects. In 1971, Gail and her husband started Testrade Ltd supplying principally X-Ray & Gamma equipment and accessories, together with Ultrasonic, MPI and Penetrant testing equipment and materials in the U.K., Europe and Worldwide, in 1973 she was elected to the Council of the NDT Society and served for 3 years before starting a family, in 1976 and at which point she took a sabbatical but still worked full time at Testrade which now had grown to 22 employees and attended most local branch meetings. For the next 25 years she attended various committees with the now NDT British Institute , including becoming a member of ASNT and being re elected to Council. She was also Chairman of the Trade Group. In her spare time she was a Warranted Cub Scout Leader for 20 years. Gail was elected as Vice-President of BINDT from 2005 to 2010 and has attended Conferences all over the world, including Europe, The Middle East, USA and India. In May 2011 she celebrated 40 years of Directorship of Testrade Limited and its incorporation.

Abstract

MY LIFE AS A WOMAN IN NDT

The title of my talk obviously refers to my-self as a woman in what was predominately a man’s world, but 50 years ago when the story began, it was tough for all youngsters. You left school at 15 years old if you were not at a grammar school. Most boys got an apprenticeship and girls usually worked in shops or offices doing menial tasks until they either “got married or got pregnant” in which ever order it happened. Obviously some youngsters went to college or university but this was rare as most children were needed to go out to work to bring in extra income. Somewhat similar to today in most parts of the world as over the last 20 years we seem to have gone back to this same situation.

My talk is a light-hearted graphical, display of trying to get the message across. Simply, that if I could do it – you can do it too. It shows how to take an opportunity and to use it even if “You get your hands dirty or break a nail”. It also shows some age and sex discrimination but nothing that I could not handle. It will show that a young person, boy or girl, can use the opportunities with or without being graduates and just one example will be my own adopted son, who was at 22 years old, a typical young person of today, having left school at 18. Not interested in anything and happy to work in a bar and do little else. I decided to give him a job in my despatch department packing the sales orders of our NDT equipment and accessories . Two years later he overheard me explain how and why penetrant aerosols were used. He finally had shown some interest and a year later with encouragement and training, he has achieved PCN level 11 in MPI and penetrant testing and works for a local NDT service company.

My message will be that young people can aspire to great things given the right education and training but when we have got their interest, we the NDT businesses and professionals have to ensure that the jobs are available. That bit is not so easy, but in an NDT industry which does not seem to have suffered in the world recession, equally it should not be that hard.