From: paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1997 13:57:54 -0800 (PST)
To: "Cynthia H. Brown" <cynthb@sonetis.com>
Subject: Re: Moderation experiment almost over; "put up or shut up"
Message-ID: <199702152157.NAA07573@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



> > Here I can agree, I personally discriminate on the basis of sex, not 
> > in that I believe women inferior to men but rather that I believe 
> > each sex better suited to different tasks and vocations.
> > That is not, however, to say that I believe women should be prevented 
> > from taking up lines of work that men traditionally hold.
> > They are free to do so, but as in the example you give later 
> > I would feel uncomfortable having my car serviced by a woman.
> 
> <flame-retardant suit on>
> 
> Normally I would ignore this sort of comment (which probably belongs in 
> some soc. newsgroup), but I feel obliged to point out that:
> 
> - The female <mechanic / scientist / engineer>, in addition to passing the
> same exams as her male classmates, has probably had to put up with a fair
> load of B.S. questioning her right and ability to be there.  The ones that
> keep at it long enough to graduate are the ones that *really* want to do 
> whatever it is, and IMHO are more likely to try harder.

Not my point, I didn`t say I would refuse, as in my example, to have 
my car serviced by a woman, rather, that I would not feel comfortable 
doing so. This is not prejudice, it is a statistical judgement based 
on the fact that, as a percentage, I know few women who are competent 
car mechanics but I know a number of men who, by the same criteria, I 
would call competent. 

> Chicken and Egg: How much of "each sex [is] better suited to different
> tasks" is due to little girls being pulled away from the Lego and toy
> trucks, and encouraged to play with Barbies?  Being told that they are 
> *pretty* not *smart* as a form of approval? 

Very much so, I did not intend, even though my post may have appeared 
that way, for one minute to suggest that women were *unable* to carry 
out certain tasks, just that they seem less suited to certain 
vocations that others. For example, I know a number of good female 
History or English students but very few good female mathematics 
or computer science students. This is not, I believe, because women are 
not "suited" to computer science rather that they have never been encouraged 
at high school etc. to learn about such subjects which are seen as male preserves. 
I wholeheartedly believe this should not be the case, and my original 
post may have been misleading, I just believe that in the current 
system very few women do become good at science/technical subjects.

 

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