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Re: MentorNet (one woman's response)

Jim,

Ladies! Ladies! Eee Gads I think our WOMEN physics majors and grad students here at Cal State Fullerton would take offense if they were referred to as "ladies".

All of this reminds me of an exchange I had in a crowded elevator with one of my colleagues in our math department (a person of truly retrograde sensibility). He asked me how many "girls" we had majoring in physics. My response, of course, was that we didn't have any "girls" in physics, only women.

Like the Marines, we would benefit by recruiting a few more good women (and men) to the major.

Mark Shapiro
http://irascibleprofessor.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Green [mailto:JMGreen@SISNA.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 10:42 PM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: Re: MentorNet (one woman's response)



I myself would prefer not to have Jim as a mentor, though. ;-)
Incidentally, I think we need more men teaching elementary school. I think
that it would have a positive influence on society.

Come to think of it, Fran, I don't think that I have "mentored" a female
graduate student. But I do believe that my better classroom students have
been ladies.

My objection to this thread is that it is based on gender. If someone had
said that we need more physicists because we were falling behind in some
way, then yes let's recruit them -- male and female alike.

Or if someone were to make the case that women's brains are in general
better suited for physics -- as I believe they are -- and we need that
advantage to deal with world events, then let's recruit more ladies to the
ranks.

But the claim -- as in this thread -- is that the number of female
physicists is less percentagewise than in the population in general and
_therefore_ we should do something about that, I say fooy -- let the ladies
do as they please -- welcome them as physicists if they wish but don't
fault or berate them if they choose otherwise -- probably wisely. (The
world is in such a mess that it would benefit from more women government
leaders.)

Otherwise one is left with the argument that there should be more
Caucasians in the NFL.


Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.