Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!ecn-pc!sandersr From: sandersr@ecn-pc.UUCP (Robert C Sanders) Newsgroups: net.women,net.sci Subject: Re: Re: Re: Why are there so few [female|black] physicists? Message-ID: <607@ecn-pc.UUCP> Date: Fri, 1-Aug-86 18:12:05 EDT Article-I.D.: ecn-pc.607 Posted: Fri Aug 1 18:12:05 1986 Date-Received: Sun, 3-Aug-86 02:39:53 EDT References: <4368@decwrl.DEC.COM> <719@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU> <326@encore.UUCP> <2274@ihlpg.UUCP> Reply-To: sandersr@ecn-pc.UUCP (Robert C Sanders) Organization: Electrical Engineering Department , Purdue University Lines: 50 Xref: watmath net.women:11824 net.sci:1439 In article <2274@ihlpg.UUCP> kapa@ihlpg.UUCP (Perkins) writes: >> In article <719@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU> cheryl@batcomputer.UUCP (cheryl) writes: >> >[...] This was partly my doing. I went around socially to everybody who >> >had taken AP Biology and the top-tracked math course in Sophomore year, >> >and encouraged the women to take AP Chemistry ("Aw, it won't be that hard. >> >I'm taking it. That means it will be *fun*" [I was also the class clown]) >> >and discouraged the men from taking AP Chemistry ("It will be easier to >> >get an A in Reagents chemistry. And besides, if you take AP Chemistry >> >now, they'll place you in sophomore-level Chem when you get to college, >> >and you might not be prepared for it. I'm not taking AP chem, No-Sir-ee." >> > [...] >> > Actually, it started out with 8 women and 2 men, but we women >> >got one of the men to drop out by (a) intimidating him by working our >> >buts off on the first few homework sets and pretending the material was >> >easy and (b) telling him that if he had to work that hard to keep up with us, >> >he'd probably be "HAPPIER" in Reagents' Chemistry. >> >Cheryl >> Why did you find it important to drive people out of AP Chemistry? >> I honestly do not understand what the advantage of making >> the AP Chem class mostly women was. I also do not understand >> why one of the males dropped the course just because you said >> it was easy and worked your buttocks off at the problem sets. >> >> Why is a person who stays in AP Chemistry a martyr and a masochist? >> Is it just because you tried to force him out the class? >> Maybe he saw through the bullshit and understood that he was there >> to learn chemistry, and not to match his own course performance >> with yours. >> >> I applaud you for encouraging more females to take the course >> (I think it is overrated as to difficulty (I found AP Physics >> E&M harder)). I would applaud you more if you had encouraged >> more people to take the course. >> Michael Skrzypczak > >Another example of something that when men do it, it is sexist; >when women do it, it expresses solidarity. What is it exactly that men do? In our high school, we tried to ENCOURAGE more women to take the honors courses; we wanted more females in the class because we enjoyed being around them, and we wanted to date them (when you are one of the upper 30 people in a class of 683, you date too much). As it turned out, about two-fifths of the people we women. -- Continuing Engineering Education Telecommunications Purdue University ...!ihnp4!pur-ee!pc-ecn!sandersr Let's make like a BSD process, and go FORK-OFF !! -- bob (and "make" a few children while we're at it ...)