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From: clambert%hector@Sun.COM (Caroline Lambert [summer intern])
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: Re: Countering discrimination your children will face
Message-ID: <12875@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 1 Aug 88 20:10:41 GMT
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In article <12792@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> gds@spam.istc.sri.com (Greg Skinner) writes:
>It would be best if you let *her* decide what she wanted to do, then
>encourage that.

But, but, but....how many kids really know what they want to do at the point
when they have to make serious career decisions?  Without external guidance 
they will more likely pick the path of least resistance, which is also the
path of least challenge and therefore probably of least reward.

Obviously, if the girl really hates technical stuff of any sort, then there
is no point in encouraging her in that direction, but if she is ambivalent, 
then she should be given encouragement to pursue something that she may
think is too difficult or unsuitable for her because of the stigma attached
to women in technical fields.

Dragging personal experience into this - I found languages far easier than
science and math when I was in high school, and was tempted to go into that
in university. My parents kept a neutral standpoint, encouraging me neither
one way or the other. It was an older brother who persuaded me otherwise.
Two friends in the same position chose the other route because they thought
they wouldn't do well in science at university, though they had done 
reasonably well at it in school. Needless to say they have both had a hard
time finding satisfactory work after graduation.

I ran into the same dilemma when choosing grad schools - by the time I had
finished as an undergrad I was fed up with.....I'm not sure what, but I 
wanted a change. Maybe it was from struggling with being the only woman 
in most of my classes; feeling left out; putting up with professors who
thought I only passed some courses because of help from a boyfriend. I had
taken language classes as options, and applied to various grad schools in
different subjects. I was offered a scholarship to go to Yale to study
modern Chinese literature, and was very tempted to do it, but was again
persuaded against it by a friend who pointed out that it was better to be
a scientist with a linguistic background. I rarely met encouragement like
that, but I needed it to stay in science, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
It boggles the imagination to think where I'd be now had I gone to Yale,
but I'm fairly sure now that I would have regretted it.

I have a daughter and I'm going to give her all the support and encouragement
she needs to be a scientist or engineer, if she has any inclination at all 
in that direction.

Caroline Lambert
caroline@polya.stanford.edu	clambert@sun.com