Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!xanth!mcnc!ecsvax!alpha.CES.CWRU.Edu!hunt
From: hunt@alpha.CES.CWRU.Edu
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: Re: Women on the Net
Message-ID: <6432@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: 16 Feb 89 21:33:03 GMT
References: <6377@ecsvax.UUCP> <6394@ecsvax.UUCP> <6405@ecsvax.UUCP>
Sender: skyler@ecsvax.UUCP
Organization: Computer Engineering and Science/CWRU
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Approved: skyler@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Moderator -- Trish Roberts)
Comments-to: comp-women-request@cs.purdue.edu
Submissions-to: comp-women@cs.purdue.edu

In article <6425@ecsvax.UUCP> lsc@sun.com writes:
>In article <6405@ecsvax.UUCP> brs@lzfme.att.com (B.SCHWARTZ) writes:
>>...  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. 

I had a slightly different impression of the article.  The difference was
not so much that boys had the jump on using computers in high school, but
in the different ways that people deal with computing.  The first sentence
in the Times article is very telling: "Women and girls use computers; men
and boys love them."  It goes on to say that while many women are
successful computer scientists, etc, "they are almost without exception
bystanders in the passionate romance that men conduct with these machines,
whether in computer science labs, video game parlors, garages, or dens."

It seems that this need to master the computer takes the place of sports
for many boys, perhaps fulfilling some need for competition.  What develops
among groups is then such a culture that many women find it difficult to
break into the culture.  I have often walked into a terminal room or
bullpen area and had the feeling that I went into the wrong locker room!
This can be very unsettling, to say the least.

>
>Hrmph!  How about a local survey of successful women in this newsgroup:
>Did you have mentors at an early age?  Were they your parents, or others?
>

Well, I had no role models as such.  I always loved math, knew that I 
would major in math at college, had some exposure to Basic in H.S. (on
a time shared system in 1970), and ended up with a double major in Math
and Comp Sci for my B.S.  After 2 years working in industry, I went back
to grad school in C.S. to work on a Ph.D.  There was one woman professor
in the department who left a few years after I was there, and another that
was an adjunct with the Math department.  I don't think I really saw them
as role models, since I knew at that point that I could make it.  They
didn't cultivate that image (of being mentors) either, so that probably
contributed to my not seeing them as such.

I am now one of two women professors out of a faculty of 12 in our
Computer Eng and Sci department.  I try to interact with as many women
students as possible, especially through the student chapter of SWE.
Unfortunately, these kinds of things are not recognized at tenure time,
so I may not be able to continue the same level of visibility if I lose
my job this year.  I feel very strongly about trying to be a role model
for the women that I see, at least to give them some reassurance that
they can make it through the system.

Actually, I think the visibility of successful women in the sciences
is much more important at the younger levels.  By the time my students
see me, they have already decided that they have the "right stuff"!
I would like to be able to interact with girls in junior high and
thereabouts to get them thinking about technical careers at an earlier age.

Francie Hunt
Assistant Professor, Computer Engineering and Science
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106
hunt@alpha.ces.cwru.edu