# Bridging the Gender Gap



## maryannette (Jul 25, 2008)

This was on the news last night. I watched it with my daughter.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=5441728&amp;page=1


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## roadwreck (Jul 25, 2008)

now if we could only teach women to drive.


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## maryannette (Jul 25, 2008)

I think the insurance companies have already figured that out.


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## MA_PE (Jul 25, 2008)

And we're teaching women to fight. There appears to be a significant rise in women gang members and women beatinn women these days. Let keep closing these gaps and we'll all be gender neutral.


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## TXengrChickPE (Jul 25, 2008)

I was in high school in the early 90's... but no one (except my parents, and I never listened to them anyway) told me that I wasn't SUPPOSED to be good at math (or science for that matter)! My tiny little high school had 4 math teachers and only 1 was male... and he was the WORST teacher I ever had. Our AP calculus classes were always at least half female, and was taught by a female. The gender gap simply didn't exist in our school.

Of course, now that we've fixed the problem, the special programs will start to disappear and the gender gap will start to reappear.


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## frazil (Jul 25, 2008)

^why would they start to reappear? Maybe it will go in the other direction and males will start to feel inadequate (also a bad thing).

My high school experience was similar - there was no gender gap. My AP calculus class had 2 students, one girl (me) and one guy. College engineering courses were a different matter, but I think that is changing as well.


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## ktulu (Jul 25, 2008)

MA_PE said:


> And we're teaching women to fight. There appears to be a significant rise in women gang members and women beatinn women these days. Let keep closing these gaps and we'll all be gender neutral.


yup. Look at the WNBA.


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## Katiebug (Jul 25, 2008)

frazil said:


> ^why would they start to reappear? Maybe it will go in the other direction and males will start to feel inadequate (also a bad thing).
> My high school experience was similar - there was no gender gap. My AP calculus class had 2 students, one girl (me) and one guy. College engineering courses were a different matter, but I think that is changing as well.


My high school physics and calculus classes were evenly split (or close to it). To my knowledge, several of the "AP" group's males went on to engineering careers, and I'm the only one of the females who did - although several of the girls went into hard sciences, medicine, and nursing.

In college I was the only girl in my major and year - me and 31 guys. It didn't bother me too much, to be honest. My two close friends ended up as ushers at my wedding (they offered to be bridesmen, and I'm _so_ not kidding!). The year before mine there were no girls majoring in ME, just guys. The year before that there were two girls and it was a big deal. This year's interns at work are from my alma mater and not only has enrollment in Mechanical Engineering doubled in just 5 years, but the class is about 1/3 female. Amazing how quickly things change...

At work, I was until recently the only female mechanical engineer in my organization. We have two more now (out of 30+ engineers) so that's an improvement. The software and electrical engineering departments have many more women including women in senior positions - mechanical has lacked senior female engineers for a long time. It's never bothered me much to work with men, although I admit that until a short time ago the prospect of having a child seemed quite daunting because there were no women who'd been through it who I could ask about practical matters like going on field visits, handling chemicals, maternity leave, etc.


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## TXengrChickPE (Jul 25, 2008)

frazil said:


> ^why would they start to reappear? Maybe it will go in the other direction and males will start to feel inadequate (also a bad thing).


I think that part of the reason that the gender gap has disappeared is that there are lots of camps and special programs for girls in math and science. A lot of these programs expose girls to "real world" math and science. The good programs make it fun for them, which leads to them taking more advanced math and science courses than they would otherwise take. Also, some schools are starting to separate boys and girls for some classes, because it has been shown that they tend to learn differently. If the special programs and classes disappear, we might see fewer girls taking the higher level math classes again.

Right now, _most_ (not all) female engineers are the ones who, as children, preferred to play with boys' toys rather than dolls and dressup. The women who are currently in engineering schools grew up with math camps for girls, math and science activities in girl scouts (other than selling cookies), and teachers who were told to get the girls involved in math classes.


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## snickerd3 (Jul 25, 2008)

TXengrChickPE said:


> Right now, _most_ (not all) female engineers are the ones who, as children, preferred to play with boys' toys rather than dolls and dressup. The women who are currently in engineering schools grew up with math camps for girls, math and science activities in girl scouts (other than selling cookies), and teachers who were told to get the girls involved in math classes.


My sister and I were they only girls on the block so we did more of the boy stuff outside with the neighborhood kids, but inside we both had a gazillion barbie dolls, my little ponies, She-Ra and anything else all frilly and girly. So I guess we got the best of both worlds.


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## C-Dog (Jul 25, 2008)

This is great news! Back in school, the materials engineering department had 14 total students, 2 of which were women. In my current position, there are 2 women out of 18 in my dicsipline, I don't know what the ratio is department wide and don't have enough time to count..


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## TXengrChickPE (Jul 25, 2008)

snickerd3 said:


> My sister and I were they only girls on the block so we did more of the boy stuff outside with the neighborhood kids, but inside we both had a gazillion barbie dolls, my little ponies, She-Ra and anything else all frilly and girly. So I guess we got the best of both worlds.


I don't know how She-Ra would have felt about being called "frilly and girly"! LOL


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## gymrat1279 PE (Jul 25, 2008)

TXengrChickPE said:


> I don't know how She-Ra would have felt about being called "frilly and girly"! LOL


Well, she was a princess... just happened to be the "Princess of Power"


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## snickerd3 (Jul 25, 2008)

TXengrChickPE said:


> I don't know how She-Ra would have felt about being called "frilly and girly"! LOL


My little she-ra figures had fancy outfits of different materials, the fighting outfit, there was also a really girly satin nightgown/cape combo. She-ra definitely had a girly side.


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