Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!aero-c!nadel
From: arw@world.std.com (Anthony R Wuersch)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Chess (Was: Sexism)
Message-ID: <1991Mar29.020740.2687@world.std.com>
Date: 29 Mar 91 02:07:40 GMT
References: <560@clbull.cl.bull.fr> <1991Mar16.023153.20594@agate.berkeley.edu>
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lippin@lipton.berkeley.edu (The Apathist) writes:

>male-dominated fields, such as programming and chess, in which a form
>of mastery is attained by starting young and practicing obsessively
>through adolescence.

>Are there fields in which women achieve mastery in this way?

Fashion design.  Order pattern guides from Vogue or Butterick and subscribe
to Womens Wear Daily.  Mother and daughter (or son) can attend sewing classes
together.

Writing.  Dancing.  Acting.  Music.

>In either case, this may explain why the spread of feminism hasn't
>caused a great increase in the number of female chess masters -- few
>women have given feminism a great deal of thought at age twelve.

Well .... perhaps twelve year olds can be *innocent* feminists!  I read
in NY Times Magazine of interviews conducted by Carol Gilligan's students,
of twelve and sixteen year old girls.  The roles imagined by the twelve
year olds are substantially trimmed down and reduced by age sixteen.

A book edited by Gilligan about this interview work is in the stores.
The population sampled by these interviews is not well specified, but
I think it's the children of those people most likely to buy the book.
Shrewd choice :-).


Toni

PS: if "(The Apathist)" is a mathematician, do we interpret his moniker
    topologically or psychologically?
-- 
Toni Wuersch
arw@world.std.com   {uunet,bu.edu,bloom-beacon}!world!arw