From: shenry@cs.rice.edu (Sam Henry)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles
Subject: Re: women working on bikes
Date: 9 Sep 1992 14:54:59 GMT
Organization: Rice University, Houston

This was Nancy Piltch's counter to Jobst's earlier argument, I
believe:

> >> You would also find a good many women who are engineers ... as
> >> well as mechanics, electricians, and other trades.

Jobst Brandt continues to maintain:

> >That women fit into these skills is common, but I am not convinced that
> >women have the mechanical aptitude more often found in men because, as
> >I said, I have never met one who recognizes mechanisms and mechanical
> >things with natural facility.  My experience does not prove that such
> >women do not exist, only that in my sample they are highly uncommon.

In article <1992Sep9.084540.23580@kei.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
jeff@is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp writes: 

>The experience portion of my reality is somewhat similar.  I have
>never *met* a female code hacker/system designer/computer guru who was
>as good as the males I know.  The difference is that I believe this to
>be the result of societal molding.  ...

I have to extend that argument to almost all the limitations people
place on themselves.  Genetics has been proven to play an important
role in defining some boundaries, but societal pressure plays an
enormous part.

I grew up with two sisters who had two older brothers.  We were all
close enough in age that we spent a lot of time playing and recreating
together.  My brother and I were both very competitive and somewhat
athletic.  My brother very much so.  When my sisters wanted to play
with us it was keep up with the pack or go sit on the porch and watch
the big dogs play.  Understand, we weren't reluctant to have them
participate or to teach them the skills they needed to be in whatever
game we played.  But the pace wasn't adjusted because there were girls
playing. 

When my sisters started dating, they invariably gravitated toward guys
that took them on tennis and golf dates and such.  More than once, the
guys couldn't cope with women who were every bit as competitive and
went for every ball on the line or drove off the tee like they were
trying to reach the green in one shot.  And then chortled when they
beat their dates at whatever.

To put this in context, in that age, girls were cheerleaders and pep
squaders and women's athletics were virtually non-existant.  The
pentultimate and still acceptable athletic experience for a woman was
to date the star of the men's athletic team "in season".  I quit going
on tennis dates when the captain of the women's tennis team stood
across the net and just sort of waggled her raquet.  She should have
beat me 4000 to love.

Of course, my Mother was very much an equal opportunist.  She gave my
brother and I every opportunity to become as domesticated as my
sisters.  Every Saturday, in fact.  So my brother and I grew up
knowing how to prepare meals (as contrasted with cook something) and
clean a house (including the toilets).  You can imagine how rare those
skills were among men at that time.  When I went off to college, an
all-male military school, I was one of the few freshmen who knew how
to make a bed with hospital corners and sweep a floor without raising
dust. 

Those are skills my wife very much appreciates to this day.  And I
respect that, unless I cheat, she is going to beat me to the signpost
on the sprint.  I cheat, so I win a few.


-- 
sam henry <shenry@rice.edu>
Wanna ride?
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles,rec.bicycles.racing