Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!xanth!mcnc!ecsvax!lzfme.att.com
From: brs@lzfme.att.com (B.SCHWARTZ)
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: Re: Women on the Net
Message-ID: <6405@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: 14 Feb 89 15:34:09 GMT
References: <6377@ecsvax.UUCP> <6394@ecsvax.UUCP>
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>In article <6394@ecsvax.UUCP> ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) writes:

>There's an article on the front page of the Times today that reports
>the results of a study into why there is such a gender gap in the
>computer industry.  It about boils down to the thesis that men get
>a big jump on woman because they were computer nerds in high school
>and college (hanging around playing with computers at all hours rather
>than having any real friends).  It sort of partially reinforces my
>theory, which is that women lose out because they don't get started
>at an early enough age, and that we ought to encourage their growth.
>I had neglected in my theory, to hypothesize why women aren't likely
>to get involed at an early age.

I read the article too, and most of what you say is an accurate
representation of what is in it.  I would just like to clarify
one point that the article made.  It   saidthat women (girls)
start getting involved at an early age, just like boys, but they
become socialized in a different way, and tend to spend less
time with the machines as they approach adolescence.  The
article also said, that women are generally not a part of the
"hacker" culture.  They tend to spend more time socializing with
people, and less time playing with video games and other
computer toys.  It also went on to stress the importance of
role models.  Most successful women in the computer field have
parents, or other mentors who work in the field and
introduced them to computing (with encouraagement) at an early
age. 

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