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February 17, 2003
A: FROM MENTOR CAROL TOMAN
IN IL
My opinion is that, on any dimension you care to measure,
there is a
much greater range of difference within either gender than
there is
between the genders. We don't even need to consider whether,
on the
average, men are better at spacial and analytical tasks while
women are
better at verbal and empathetic tasks. That is irrelevant
to any
individual person. Personally, I am a highly rational, analytical,
spacial person, and my strongest subject in school was always
math. I
delight in the logical and analytical aspects of my job writing
computer
programs and debugging them. In other words, I am a hopeless
techo-nerd. (If you can watch tech-tv on cable or satelite,
tune in to
see plenty of other women techo-nerds.)
No one has been able to satisfactorily answer the question
of why there
are more men than women in technological fields. Are men naturally
better? Some studies indicate that testerostone in-utero does
enhance
logic and spacial characteristics. Are girls discouraged or
at least
not encouraged to follow technological paths? Undoubtedly
true in some
families/schools/communities. Are girls daunted by the prospect
of
being the only woman in their area? Probably. It's probably
a
combination of all these things. But I'll say it again: what
really
matters are the characteristics and desires of the individual.
*******************
A: FROM MENTOR SHIELA ENGLAND
IN PA
Software Engineering is a fantastically satisfying field to
be in. I have
performed every job involved with the Software Engineering
life cycle, which
has included analyzing and writing down what is required to
produce a
product, a process or a system. I have interviewed customers
on what job
they do so that I can produce a product that will help them
do their job
more efficiently. I have drawn diagrams to help others and
myself to write
programmatic instructions to solve a problem or to help someone
perform
their job better or more safely. I have designed processes
that have enabled
my colleagues and I to work together more effectively. I have
written
testing plans and testing tools used to test my software and
other
engineer's software. I have followed test plans to test software.
I have
been a part of software implementation in the field in the
US A and in
Europe where different nationalities produced different pieces
of a software
system that had to be integrated. I have sometimes performed
the job of
someone for whom software was to be developed so that I could
understand how
they perform their job. I have learned about medical systems,
medicine,
medical products, research, transportation, manufacturing,
databases,
networks, graphics, user interfaces, wireless communication,
all types of
data communication and more. I have worked with focused teams
to produce a
product. I have worked independently. I am always challenged
and learning
new processes, tools and languages. I am never bored. Software
engineering
requires excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
as well as
logical, mathematical and analytical thinking. Software projects
need to be
well managed, tracked and directed. We females are well-equipped
to excel
in the diverse jobs required in this field.
My experience in a male-dominated field has taught me that
males often put
one another down as a way of competing and going forward with
their
careers - beating a competitor out of the game. It looks like
that kind of
the hill game played as children where the ones on top do
everything they to
keep the others down and to keep their team up. We females
handle
competition in other ways and are not well-equipped for the
game. What is
said about females not being logical, mathematical and technical
is
information disseminated by males and propagated by females
raised in a
patriarchal culture where women's roles have been limited
and where females
need to be protected. This is changing slowly and fact is:
It is just not
true like many other myths used to enforce and preserve the
known culture.
*******************
A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK IN
RI
there is a fair amount of research showing that people's expectations
can limit how well they learn. If you tell women that women
tend to
do poorly, they will; if you take another group and tell them
that
women are better than men at the same task, they will do better.
Women have heard all their lives that they are not supposed
to be
good at science. It's easy for us to fail because it's the
expected
thing to do, the feminine thing, it even makes us more desirable
_as_women_ to be incompetent in male-dominated fields. If
women are
worried, while they take a math test, that they will never
be loved
if they are too good at math, then they won't do as well as
they
might because of the emotional conflict. Everybody wants to
be
loved, and conforming to stereotypical notions of what's feminine
or
masculine is a sensible biological strategy to maximize the
chance of
finding love. So happy valentine's day!
But times have changed. There are more women in non-traditional
roles, and young men are used to that. They are more able
to see
that a woman with intelligence and power is indeed a woman
and even
lovable. And women have more options than dependency on a
man for
their living, so they are more free than in generations past
to enter
fields that use their whole minds and give them intellectual
satisfaction - even if society thinks of those fields as masculine.
********************
A: FROM MENTOR KRISTIN TAGHON
IN IL
There are a few reasons there are not as many women as men
in the technology
fields. One is exactly what you mentioned. Women do have a
harder time in a
male-oriented field. Male-oriented fields are fields where
mostly men are
working. Men treat each other differently than they treat
women and men treat
each other differently than women treat each other. So, if
you go into this
field, you have to be ready to deal with those differences.
And you have to
have a thick skin, because you may sometimes be descriminated
against.
Sometimes women hear this and are afraid to deal with this.
I believe that this
is slowly changing, and that women going into these fields
are changing it.
This trend started long ago when it was expected that all
women would marry and
not have to support themselves, so it would not be necessary
for them to have a
good-paying job. That trend has definitely changed! Women
are not necessarily
marrying right out of school. Some may not even marry at all,
and have the
necessity to make enough money to sustain a nice lifestyle
and to take them into
retirement. AND, with the high cost of living, even women
who do marry, need to
help with the financial support of their families and lifestyles.
Young girls
are often discouraged from going into these fields. Parents
who may not
understand the fields may discourage their daughters, perhaps
because they want
their daughters to succeed and are afraid of anything new.
In schools all over
America, often, boys are encouraged more so than girls to
take math and sciences
and are sometimes praised more in classes than girls are.
This has to change so
that girls and women can have more options for careers and
so that they can have
better paying jobs.
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