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From: mrgofor@mmm.UUCP (MKR)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.singles
Subject: Re: career vs. relationships
Message-ID: <557@mmm.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 24-Feb-86 00:06:21 EST
Article-I.D.: mmm.557
Posted: Mon Feb 24 00:06:21 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Feb-86 06:29:26 EST
References: <11785@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <660@rti-sel.UUCP> <529@mmm.UUCP> <341@fear.UUCP>
Reply-To: mrgofor@mmm.UUCP (MKR)
Organization: none
Lines: 50
Xref: watmath net.women:9305 net.singles:10457
Summary: 

In article <341@fear.UUCP> robert@fear.UUCP (Robert Plamondon) writes:
>In article <529@mmm.UUCP>, mrgofor@mmm.UUCP (MKR) writes:
>> 
>> 	Thought experiment for the day: There are two people standing
>> before you, one is female, the other is male. They are both about the same
>> age. The only thing you know about these people is that they were randomly
>> chosen from the University population at large, and that one is gung-ho
>> about mathematics, and one is not. I offer to give you $1,000,000 if you
>> can correctly guess which one is the gung-ho mathematician.
>> 
>> 	Which do you choose? If you choose the male, are you being sexist?
>> 
>> 					--MKR
>
>You choose the male, of course: "The contest goes not always to the
>strong, nor the race to the swift -- but that's the way to bet."
>
>If you don't know anything about the individual, you're reduce to
>either making guesses on the basis of percentages, the basis of
>prejudice, or refusing to guess.  In the example above, if you don't
>bet, you can't win.  If you guess on the basis of percentages
>("scientific prejudice," if you will), you have the highest chance of
>being right.  If you guess on the basis of prejudice (for example,
>"I'm a feminist, so I'll choose the woman"), the odds are (in
>general) less favorable.
>
>In any event, though, "sexism" is too harsh a term to use in this
>example.  Sexism is when you stick to your prejudices IN SPITE OF
>evidence, not when you make stereotypical guesses when you can't get
>any hard information.
>
>	Robert Plamondon

Good answer. Ithink that was the point of the person who originally
posted the article about his "guesser daemon". He had no knowledge
of the people who came into his class, and he had to make decisions
based upon the odds. Unfortunately, what this does is perpetuate the
status quo - in this case the male dominance of the field of mathematics.
This is the point of affirmative action programs - to be sexist or
racist in the opposite direction in the hopes of evening out the
unfairnesses. I support the concept of affirmative action, but the point
I wanted to make was that when it comes right down to it, sometimes a
betting person has to play the odds and deal with the world as it is,
rather than as it should be. And when it happens, it isn't necessarily
sexist.

-- 
					--MKR

There is none so blind as he who cannot see.