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From: linda@amdcad.UUCP (Linda Seltzer)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.sci
Subject: Re: Clarification about college admissions
Message-ID: <12546@amdcad.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 1-Aug-86 17:54:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: amdcad.12546
Posted: Fri Aug  1 17:54:42 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Aug-86 11:01:02 EDT
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Organization: AMDCAD, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 27
Keywords: Re: Why aren't there any [female|black] [physicists|whatever] ?
Xref: watmath net.women:11808 net.sci:1430
Summary: Dr. Dresselhaus feels that the NUMBER of women matters

> The colleges and universities are more interested in increasing the NUMBER
> of female|black|etc students than in helping the female|black|etc students
> themselves.  What I was saying applied mainly to public schools which have

> As I recall, this discussion about "Why aren't there any [female|black]
> physicists?" started out as a discussion about why there were so few
> female|black people within the group of people who were interested in
> science in general and physics in particular, with the result being that
> so few female|black people entering the applicant pool of physics majors.
> This is the root of the problem; without improving the female|black|etc's
> standing within the applicant pool (for whatever, including college


In the recent issue of Physics Today, Professor Mildred Dresselhaus
of M.I.T. has published an article about women graduate students.
While I feel that article whitewashes many issues affecting women
students, she did make one point which is relevant to the discussion
here:

Studies have shown that women fare better after the percentge of
women exceeds a certain threshold, i.e., women do better academically
in the presence of more of their peers.  Therefore, admitting more
women could improve the self confidence of the women and, consequently,
their performance.  The author felt hat admission of more women was the
most important factor which would increase women's success.  She
never felt that the women students were inferior in their knowledge
or education.