From: julie@cucbs.chem.columbia.edu (Julie Wright)
Subject: Re: Gender differences - Sophie Germain
Organization: The Cultural Elite
	<1g2egpINN3dl@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> <2185@newsserver.cs.uwindsor.ca>
	<2199@newsserver.cs.uwindsor.ca> <michael.724427507@glia>
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 23:54:50 GMT

michael@glia.biostr.washington.edu (Michael) writes:

>In <2199@newsserver.cs.uwindsor.ca> bouche2@server.uwindsor.ca (BOUCHER DAVID>>>>) writes:
>>This may seem disingenuous to some people, but why does it even MATTER
>>whether or not the proportions of men and women in science and math are 
>>equal?  As long as everyone is free to follow their own interests, most 
>>people are bound to gravitate to whatever they do best.

Some of us feel that the greater attrition rates of women (or girls)
indicate that there is a problem; others feel that the fields would
be 51% female if there were no sexism.  The reason this is a concern,
then, is that the low proportion of women may indicate that many people
are _not_ "free to follow their own interests", but are being judged
unfairly by their professors, bosses, fellow students, etc.  Also, some
people feel that society is not necessarily best served by people
gravitating to what they do best; for instance, I've heard it argued 
that there is a shortage of scientists in the US, so we should encourage
women and minorities to do science since they're a significant chunk
of the population.  (I personally try to focus on more tangible things
than whether 50% of physicists (e.g.) would be female in the absence of 
sexism, and worry more about what happens to all those women who graduated 
from college with physics degrees and a demonstrated talent and interest in
the field, and similar issues about what happens at each stage.  Also,
I think the "shortage of scientists" is mostly garbage.)  

>In the long run it won't matter.  But in the short run, there is still
>pressure in our culture against women becoming a part of scientific
>fields.  

I think you're more optimistic than I am if you think of this as a "short
run" problem.  After all, men grow up in the same culture women do, and
male scientists have a lot less motivation to change or resist the 
"pressure ... against women becoming part of scientific fields" than 
women do.  I hope you're right, though.

>This cultural pressure is a leftover from the days when women
>didn't enjoy the same rights men did.  Its slowly dissappearing, but it
>hasn't gone yet.  Working towards equal numbers is one way of speeding up
>the removal of this cultural pressure.

Also, being in a minority creates cultural pressure in and of itself.

Many people would rather not spend their lives being crusaders and 
fighting against their colleagues for recognition.  Would _you_ join
a club that doesn't want you?  Suppose you could find plenty of other
things to do where you could feel relaxed and welcomed?  

---Julie
-- 
 ___________________________________________________________________
|   Pigs and goats alike care nothing for the opera.                |
|       			--- Tom Weller, _Minims_            |
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Xref: sparky alt.feminism:6029 sci.skeptic:21356 soc.women:21459 soc.men:21156