Are you there, science? It's me.
I’ve always wanted to know everything about everything, and I’ve always loved the way everything connects to everything else. Except science.
( Is it just me, or is this a hard subject to get into? Is it just me, or does it seem like kids will more likely be interested in anything else more than science (or possibly math)? And is it just me, or does it seem like the latter are more often girls? )
( Is it just me, or is this a hard subject to get into? Is it just me, or does it seem like kids will more likely be interested in anything else more than science (or possibly math)? And is it just me, or does it seem like the latter are more often girls? )
1) Social stigma. Women are "feeling." They're "nurturing." They have "intuition." They can't think critically, and anyway no guy wants to marry a woman who's smarter than he is, right? And on and on ad nauseum. Let me tell you, if everyone is telling you repeatedly that you can't do something, you really start to think you can't do it.
2) I'm not sure how to explain this. Okay - so I went to an all girls high school. And I took AP Computer Science. There were twelve girls in my class. There I was, learning to program, it was fun! I decided to major in it. I knew it would be male dominated, but hey, no big right? We're all there to learn, gender doesn't matter!
No.
When you're one of one or two women in a class of fifteen, twenty people, you are not a computer science major. You are a female computer science major. You are The Girl. It's not that anyone is creepy or ( ... )
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
In 1989, in Montreal, a frustrated would-be engineer walked into an engineering class at Ecole Polytechnique with a gun. He ordered all the male students and the male teacher to leave, then shot and killed the 14 female students, yelling, "You are all a bunch of feminists!" Then he shot himself. Apparently he had been unable to win a spot in the engineering class and blamed affirmative action for his failures.
So, yeah. I thought twice about studying engineering after that.
Reply
My dad told me never to be an engineer because I would have to work for The Man. He told my two brothers this too, though.
Reply
2) I understand what you mean. On the other hand, I'm not sure I would even notice if I was the only girl in a classroom. Not because I'm so above it all; I'm not trying to say that. But I tend to be very oblivious to everything, and at the same time I sort of feel awkward or out of place wherever I am. I guess what I'm wondering is how much of this feeling is something we girls put on ourselves, rather than a vibe fellow male classmates give off.
1) Definitely. I'd like to say I'm not affected by this, but I grew up loving books like Jane Eyre, where the male in the relationship is older and more worldly and the heroine is a young innocent who Must Learn. That particular dynamic has always really attracted me, but when I think about it I can't think of an example where the woman is the teaching partner and the male is an innocent in the ways of the world. Maybe I would've gravitated toward something different ( ... )
Reply
Leave a comment