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From: Marla.Parker@Eng.Sun.COM (Marla Parker)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Science vs. Liberal Arts
Message-ID: <12010@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 23 Apr 91 18:31:44 GMT
References: <70635@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
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In article <70635@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> v104klqv@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu writes:
>The liberal arts and the sciences require two almost completely
>different ways of thinking.  One is not "harder" or "easier"
>than the other, and there's really no point in comparing them---
>they complement each other.  Success in one proves only that you
>are capable of thinking in that manner.  Someone here said that
>they knew they'd be at the top of their class if they were majoring
>in the liberal arts.  Really?!  Don't be so condescending.
>In many ways, liberal arts require *more* "brain power" than
>the sciences.

My thoughts exactly.  And here is a short story of sexism that is
directly related to these two different ways of thinking.

My parents are both intelligent, educated people.  My father has a PhD
from Columbia in geology and my mother a Masters from Syracuse in
Journalism.  After I was born, my mom quit work for 25+ years.  Now
she is the general editor of technical publications in the geography &
anthropology department at LSU.

My father believes in Science, Logic, and Reason almost with the
fanaticism of a convert, which makes sense because he rebelled against
the Christianity of his upbringing and became an atheist (at 30!).  I
don't have any problem with his faith in the hard sciences.  My
problem is with his complete blindness to the intelligence of my
mother.

While he is proud of her degree, and respects advanced learning in any
field, and if asked directly he would admit she is an intelligent
woman, it has been clear to me from about the age of 11 that he thinks
she is a complete and total idiot!  I used to argue about it with him,
during the years I was rebelling against/recovering from being a
daddy's girl.  He told me he tried to improve her (!) but after years
of failure he had given up.  There was no hope for her, she just
couldn't reason well, she was too emotional, etc.  It was really
unbelievable.  And shocking to me that someone so intelligent (my dad)
could be so stupid!  Isn't growing up fun.  It really is humorous to
look back on.

After 30 years my mother finally left.  They've been separated a year
and should be filing a no-contest divorce shortly.  My father had
ample warning that she would leave him but he could not believe she
could function on her own without him.  He did not think she would be
able to hold a job (she's been at LSU 3 years now, I think).  Even
though it is clear now that she can survive (even flourish) without
him, I suspect that he still believes she is doing it by sheer luck.
She's doing great; he's the one I'm worried about, but so far he's ok.

Anyway, the relevance of this story to the subject at hand is that the
belief that hard sciences are somehow harder (and thus superior?)  to
the liberal arts was one of the basic problems that lead to my
parents' divorce.  (Another was my mom's acquiescence to being treated
like a doormat for a couple of decades, but that's another story.)

>By the way, one of the reasons there are so few women in engineering
>classes is that women are, for the most part, not encouraged to
>pursue such a curriculum.

That is why I am in Women And Mathematics, a national organization of
female speakers who visit high schools (a) to encourage all students
to continue taking math past the 10th grade and (b) to encourage the
female students to consider technical fields as well as traditional
female careers when planning their futures.  SWE has similar programs
in some parts of the country.


--
Marla Parker		(415) 336-2538
marla@eng.sun.com