[TriLUG] The biggest deterrent for women in tech

Brandon Van Every bvanevery at gmail.com
Tue Apr 30 16:39:38 EDT 2013


On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 4:29 PM, Peter Neilson <neilson at windstream.net>wrote:

>
> I notice, in counseling youngsters on career paths, that a great many
> girls "hate" mathematics. You cannot go anywhere in a tech career without
> mathematics, and allowing yourself to hate it rather than get it right is a
> tremendous blunder.


I did math competitions in junior high and high school.  I did best in
junior high and won my regionals, then got clobbered the older I got.  None
of the math team competitors were girls.  However, our teachers were all
women, and my junior high math teacher was one of my life role models.  So
was my high school biology and chemistry teacher.  I don't think lack of
women role models at the high school level is the problem, as there are so
many women teachers, and some of them are good.  Maybe there aren't enough
of the good ones to go around though.  For instance, my 3rd year high
school physics teacher was a woman, and she and her class were hopelessly
dull.  My AP physics teacher my 4th year was a man, and his class was
great.  I don't think it's because he was a man, I think it's because he
was teaching at the AP level.


Cheers,
Brandon



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