Re: Where Have All the Boys Gone?

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

At 07:04 6/30/00 -0700, you wrote:
> ...
> The number of women students in U.S. colleges and universities is now
> approaching 60% of the total enrollment. ...
> I'd be interested in your comments on this issue.

> Dr. Mark H. Shapiro

It was noticeable at the dawn of computing, that female programmer/analysts
held a prominent place at least in commercial applications.
 One would not claim an equality of numbers even then. Now, the number of
female
programmers has dwindled in my view.

 The female physics participants in this list are noticeable by their rarity.
 There are women who monitor, or who have monitored the list.
    They comment from time to time on the somewhat astringent quality of the
atmosphere.

The present numbers of women in engineering is rather low, as far as I can
tell.

Could it be there is some social engineering taking place in the schools?
It cannot simply be the number of female teachers available surely? - teaching
was for many years the vocation of women, who were thereby often required
to maintain the unmarried state.
  A better bel-weather is the treatment of the topic in Hollywood movies,
 I suspect. These are after all, our most powerful agent for social change,
world wide - a province of dreams, sometimes carefully contrived and financed.




brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK