On Wed, 16 Feb 2000, Snarfblat wrote:
> Have any of you ever felt excluded or neglected in tech classes because
> of your gender?
No, but I did have a teacher who strongly discouraged me from taking
honors pre-calculus (who was female). I can't help but wonder if she did
so because I was female. I relished in sticking my report card in her
face and gloating. ;)
> Do you feel somewhat aprehensive or uncomfortable in a male mojority
> learning environment?
No. I know many women complain about this, and I'm not really sure why.
geeks are geeks are geeks. ;).
Pretty much once I started playing chess competively my sophomore year of
high school, I got used to being the only female or one of few females in
a room. Even now, at Geek U (Carnegie Mellon ;)), I still often find I'm
the only woman at some of the technical talks, especailly many of the
logic and cs ones.
But it never bothers me. I'm comfortable around all geeks, regardless of
gender.
> I know that one of the biggest factors for me and learning new skills is
> a setting where
> i am free to tinker, ask any question that comes to mind, and in
> general, intereact freely
> with the other people there.
Same here. And I've often found it's easier to learn, at least computer
skills, as a girl, because more guys will pay attention to you when you
ask questions ;)
(Of course the downside to this is when some women end up letting
guys write their code for them in the low-level CS classes :-/ )
> I am curious, as some of the discrimination issues are obvious and well
> known (like
> prejudiced sterotypes for women in tech) but I often wonder about
> secondary, or lesser
> known problems which perhaps cause an equal amount of harm at a younger
> age, and that most
> overlook.
I haven't seen any studies done in the last 10 years that give any
indication that teachers are discriminating against girls trying to pursue
math and science. Has anyone? As I said, with the exception of the math
teacher I mentioned, I was never discouraged; in fact I was often
encouraged in my school system.
Now, the workforce is another story. There are plenty of men from the "old
school" who feel threatened by women engineers. But again, I've just heard
stories. I've worked for two companies and did not find this to be the
case.
--Laurel
________________________________________________________________________
Laurel Margulis | "Particle physics is like a children's
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | game compared to neuroscience."
www.andrew.cmu.edu/~margulis | --J. Horgan
************
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
