(National Science Foundation)
In middle school, 74% of girls express interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), but when choosing a college major, just 0.3% of high school girls select computer science.
I like to think that as the young lady in the video was walking away, she was making a plan to enter that science fair.
After all, what part of looking pretty, caring about your appearance, in this case, putting on lip gloss prevents you from being a techie?
I loved making computers do my bidding. If I'd been wearing a miniskirt, painting my nails and so forth, why would that have to have changed? It wouldn't!
What part of being a woman should prevent you from enjoying using your imagination to change the world?
Why should looking pretty, dressing beautifully, in a feminine fashion be demeaning?
Imagine
A world where intelligence and sex and masculinity and femininity are all thought of as separate from one another.
Totally separate
One does not imply any other
at
all.
My younger sister always got me to teach her what I had learned at school and became a chemical engineer flying about Europe for an oil company running multi million Pound projects. Unfortunately males like the father in the video constantly made sure that inferior males always got promoted above her.
ReplyDeleteShe quit to be a mother...
What is becoming clearer to me is the need for acceptance for transsexuals is a subset of this even greater need to rid our world of bullies, in whatever shape they present.
DeleteIn my 1983 Engineering degree graduating class, I was one of three women out of a total of a hundred students. I was the only female engineering apprentice taken on that year by a large auto manufacturing company, and I was warned to limit my visits to the assembly line, as they would cause the workers to stop work and wolf whistle...
ReplyDeleteDoesn't sound like a whole lot has changed in thirty years. I left the engineering field after ten years, as I always felt hampered by the fact that my male peers had the head start of growing up in an environment where they were exposed to car maintenance etc. Going in to computers, I had more of a level playing field, having become a computer user before the era when everyone had one in their home.
I'm not sure what the answer is, but I am not optimistic that change will be quick.
Quick results no, but awareness is a start. Perhaps it will begin with a new generation that sees that their children should never be bullied into giving up their dreams.
DeleteI must confess that I despair. I worked for an industry that did in fact pay equal salaries for equal work. Even so, there was still some of the old guard in positions of authority who frowned somewhat on women and men doing the same work. And I cannot say that I am entirely free of that sexist instinct, in particular when it comes to women fighting up front in the military. Change is coming, but it's far too slow.
ReplyDeleteEqual pay is a good start, one that needs to be made everywhere.
DeleteFreeing yourself from an old prejudice is easier when you are confronted with a clear contradiction. The Canadian armed forces have had women on the front line for the past twenty five years.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10363980/Meet-the-female-soldiers-proving-the-case-for-women-on-the-front-line.html
There may be very good physical reasons why women might not choose to take on such a role, but it should be their choice.
What part of being a woman should prevent you from enjoying using your imagination to change the world?
ReplyDeleteWhy should looking pretty, dressing beautifully, in a feminine fashion be demeaning?
Nothing wrong with that, it's the sloppy, scruffy, bigotted males that are the problem. That unfortunately will take time to change
Shirley Anne
Oh so right Shirley Anne!
DeleteThe male world is responsible for the wars and social misery we can see around us, so it seems to be logical to give women a chance to make it better. I know it is not for tomorrow, but as you said, Halle, awareness is a good start. So one day living in a more feminine world must not be a dream. And being a woman in a world like this must be a wonderful thing.
ReplyDeleteYour hopefully
Feli
Feli, as I suggested above, a better world might have no relationship to masculinity or femininity.
DeleteA better world might be one where everyone feels positive enough about their life choices and their relationship to others that they have no need to bully others or themselves into some life they do not truly want.
Sometimes I hear of bullies like that father, yes mostly male these days but not always, who hate themselves and the choices they made, but won't take responsibility for those choices. They end up hating anyone who would do what they wish they had the nerve to do; break free and follow their bliss.