Nice article, thanks for sharing Lennart!
"She was consistently told by teachers in adolescence
<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/puberty-and-adolescence/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier>,
then later by colleagues, that the things she was interested in were
things women didn't do, and that there were no good female
mathematicians," Dr. Pippenger said.
It's reasoning like this, and the one that you quoted below about
stereotypes, kept me from pursuing a degree in computer science. I
remember looking into the school when I was a young undergrad and I felt
so intimidated, and then was told that I'd have to take certain math
classes. Which frustrated me, as I could do basic language coding and
write html off the top of my head. I flunked the math classes I had to
take, and 10 years later found out I had a math disability. (And it
wasn't my parents who were telling me not to do it, it was professors,
etc. Regardless of my poor math skills, almost every single person I
know who codes jokes that "you don't /need/ to know math." Someday I'll
take some classes in something (just for fun, I suppose)..or perhaps
there will be a "N00bs super simple MediaWiki fun day that even your
grandma could learn to code at!" event.
I'm not disappointed with how my path curved and turned thus far, but,
after reading /Unlocking the Clubhouse/[1] and every time I read an
article like this, it just reminds me more and more of the experiences I
had as a young person that kept me out of the lab. The odd thing, is
that I ended up entering into a field that is upwards of 80% dominated
by women. I wonder of computer science can take any cues from museum
studies.
On that note, I'm sure I'm not the only person on this mailing list that
took a different path than the one they wanted due to popular and
personal pressure.
Sarah
[
1]http://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Clubhouse-Computing-Jane-Margolis/dp/0262…
On 4/3/12 3:36 AM, Lennart Guldbrandsson wrote:
Hello,
Via Mike Godwin:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/giving-women-the-access-code.html…
<snip>
"Most of the female students were unwilling to go on in computer
science because of the stereotypes they had grown up with," said
Zachary Dodds, a computer scientist at Mudd. "We realized we were
helping perpetuate that by teaching such a standard course."
To reduce the intimidation factor, the course was divided into two
sections --- "gold," for those with no prior experience, and "black"
for everyone else. Java, a notoriously opaque programming language,
was replaced by a more accessible language called Python. And the
focus of the course changed to computational approaches to solving
problems across science.
"We realized that we needed to show students computer science is not
all about programming," said Ran Libeskind-Hadas, chairman of the
department. "It has intellectual depth and connections to other
disciplines."
</snip>
Most of the article is about Dr Maria Klawe, who seems to be a very
inspiring person.
Best wishes,
Lennart
Lennart Guldbrandsson,
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