Re: girls and computers, was: Gendered Communication

[Stan Potts <POTTS_STAN -at- TANDEM -dot- COM>]

This is great!  I've just finished reading approximately 40 postings on
the subject of gender and tech writing.  What has it all come down to?
We have a man and a woman engaging in a public flame war over a bunch of
made up numbers.  If this doesn't illustrate the inherent differences in
inter-gender communication, I don't know what does.  I'd just like to
thank Steve and Karen for an entertaining verbal slugfest. I'll bet you
two both enjoy reading the comic strip, The Lockhorns.

However, this thread's award for clarity of thought and and substantive
intellectual contribution goes to Barbara Rigg-Healy's post.  I
especially liked her response to all those who like to refute
scientifically conducted and statistically significant research with
anecdotal evidence.

- "For those who have posted comments that either they, as women, or
their female partners/friends (from the men) read computer mags, beat
men at war-type computer games, are computer programmers, etc. --
remember this:  because *you* do these things doesn't make it applicable
to the whole population.  If you look at the research and the number
women in computer science, engineering or science in general, you will
see a sharp contrast between the sexes.  There are always exceptions,
and many of us on this list probably fall into that exception category."

Hear, Hear...I'd add that the overwhelming majority of us on this list
fall into the exception category.

In fact, if it is true that there are more women than men in tech
writing (certainly my own, admittedly anecdotal, experience confirms
this), I submit that tech writing as a profession is an exception among
high-tech professions.  I don't find this particularly surprising,
simply interesting to note in light of preponderance of men in math and
science in our academic institutions, especially since I haven't taken a
math class since plane geometery as a high school soph. and only had two
science classes my entire college career.

Personally, I rather enjoy working in a profession where so few members
actually started their work careers with the intention of becoming a
member of that profession.  It sure makes for interesting and varied
participation in forums such as this.

Stan
potts_stan -at- tandem -dot- com







------------   ORIGINAL ATTACHMENT   --------
SENT 04-14-94 FROM SMTPGATE (karenk -at- netcom -dot- com)

Steve Owens said:
>       You can't dispute them.  I made them up. Do you want to dispute
> that I made them up?

No, I know you made them up. On what basis? You just decided these
numbers, and then are trying to use these made-up numbers to
support your thesis that math weenies are more likely to use
computers because that's what your made-up numbers indicate.

> Somebody pointed out that math classes tend to be more male dominated
> and postulated the possiblity that there are common factors leading to
> the situation in the math and computer fields.  You posted taking
> disagreeing to this and this whole subtopic got started...

I disagreed not that there are more male than female math majors,
which is true. God knows I have enough female friends who were
harassed out of math, physics, and engineering. But what I disagreed
with is that math majors are inherently more likely to use computers.
I don't think that's true any more.

>       Egads, what a short-sighted point of view.  Understanding the
> roots helps us to understand the true cause, which helps us to address
> the problem.

Which problem? I know that historically there was a connection
between math and computers. But there isn't any more! The number
of women in the computer industry has skyrocketed in the past few
years, also. So I maintain that the cause of outdated thinking
is not important: the thinking has to adjust to the reality. And
the reality is that there are a lot of women in the computer
industry and it grows daily.

Karen
  karenk -at- netcom -dot- com