The Lollipop Ladies

It's easy to see why Melbourne's Swinburne University promoted Aimee Stanton as one of their "pioneers for women." She's blond, lively, attractive and she's a "celebrity", having been a contestant on Australian Survivor and a presenter on a Channel 7 television program.

Most important of all, she's a qualified female plumber - a very rare breed indeed. No wonder Swinburne couldn't resist including her in many media stories, including their Stories for a Brighter Tomorrow promotion, with a whole page dedicated to this Swinburne alum who "survived and thrived as a lady tradie".

The university was obviously very happy to overlook Ms Stanton's blemishes. Minor defects like being a self-confessed perpetrator of sexual assault.

Back in 2017, Stanton appeared on Channel 10's now defunct TV show, The Project, alongside a panel including comedian Tommy Little. Midst great hilarity, Stanton asked Little if he remembered their previous encounter. It turned out that a few years earlier she had met him during promotion for her Survivor appearances and, as she put it, "groped his downstairs region" - apparently in response to a dare. He was very shocked - she was removed by security. Naturally the panel found this all a great joke and laughed off the whole incident.

Given that Swinburne makes a big deal of their zero-tolerance stance against sexual assault and harassment, a group of students has been rightly calling the university out for their hypocrisy and sexism. The ensuing correspondence with the arrogant administration was a "masterclass in bureaucratic deflection," according to the YouTuber Daily Insight who documented the saga in two videos - here and here. It's great to see he has attracted a large audience for these videos exposing the double standards of the university.

But that kerfuffle aside, what's fascinating was Swinbourne's willingness to take the risk of promoting Stanton - despite this tawdry history - because of her status as a lady tradie.

Take a look at this graph, which highlights the failure of our feminists to achieve growth of women in construction, as compared to a variety of other male-dominated jobs and professions.

No wonder the gender warriors of the ABC are tearing their hair out. Back in 2018 they published an article quoting various academics suggesting the government should do more to shake up "the boys club" and get more women into construction. The academics had done research into why this wasn't happening.

Their brilliant conclusion? A particular problem was a culture of "presenteeism." Construction apparently isn't keen on people who don't show up! "There is little tolerance for those who won't commit, and part-time, shared or flexible work doesn't exist," lamented the academics.