Hi,
I can't really comment on universities today, since I finished up 20 years
ago. (Yikes! I hate to admit that!) I still get surprised looks and
comments when I tell people I studied physics. No one expects that a woman
will have done that, even now, which is ridiculous. Dr. Moira Gunn had her
PhD eight years before I finished my undergraduate studies, so, like, women
have been doing this for how many years? How long ago did women reach
prominence in science and engineering, including CS?
Yet, still, we have these archaic attitudes, and I'm not surprise people
find them at Universities, because it's still the same old men with their
prehistoric attitudes teaching today. Since I moved to North Carolina,
I've found that it's really in all walks of life, in the workplace, in
hiring, in everything. Worst of all, a shocking number of women share
these attitudes. I think, in that respect, I was much better off in
California or New York.
I do think the article is way off base. It's not the understanding how
things work that drives young women off. It's the social conditioning that
girls are too often raised with (especially here in the South) that tells
them that they aren't supposed to care about or do things like that, and
then the lack of encouragement or downright sexism that they later run into
if they decide to pursue a technical career.
Too many women, at least in my generation, bought into those attitudes
about what a woman should do, or what is "ladylike". I just hope the young
girls coming up today don't buy into it all.
Regards,
Caity
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