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Path: utzoo!watmath!jamcmullan
From: jamcmullan@watmath.UUCP (Judy McMullan)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: math prejudice
Message-ID: <7790@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-May-84 14:18:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmath.7790
Posted: Thu May 17 14:18:11 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 18-May-84 00:17:43 EDT
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 38

  >I would consider a proof that on the average men are better at math than
  >women to be dangerous knowledge because of the way it might be applied.
  >The statement "on the average men are better at math than women" can be
  >all to easily perverted to, Susan is female, females are no good at math,
  >therefore Susan is no good at math, therefore she should not be helped
  >or encouraged.  This is the immature attitude referred to in the original
  >article. 

Wake up to the real world! The scenario you have described is exactly how
things are now!! Lisa described it all too well.

  >I hope that social preasures are the only cause of the observed differences.
  >If this is so we have the opportunity to dramatically increase the number
  >of top flight mathematicians.

That opportunity already exists! People should just stop telling the top
mathemetician in the class to become a high school teacher and the second
in line to become an engineer!!

*I* don't want to burn my fingers cooking
dinner for some dingbat who can't balance his chequebook just because I am
female. I feel my talents are too good to be wasted and I sure didn't get
this attitude because I was encouraged to go on in math!! It was just too
obviously in love with math to do anything else! My father & his "but you'll
just be getting married" were ignored. I have got to give a lot of credit
to the feminist movement for helping me ignore a lot of messages from the
media and people in my daily life that tried to hold me back. I would be
a very unhappy housewife, today, if a lot of women, through the years,
hadn't fought for a lot of big & little steps toward bettering the lives
of women.

The problem is not whether one group is better at math than another.
The problem is, just as Lisa showed, that no matter how good any individual
girl is at math, she is discouraged from studying it. Too many fine abilities
are lost this way.

   --from the sssstickkky keyboard of JAM
   ...!{allegra|ihnp4|clyde|decvax}!watmath!jamcmullan