[sdiy] Female sdiy'ers

[Jerry Gray-Eskue]

First of all I want to state that the distinction between female and male is
very small, just a s in racial distinctions. An alien race might have an
extremely difficult time making these distinctions. There are differences
but that doesn't make one better than the other, it make for diversity which
enhances out chances of genetic survival. The drive to keep humans alive may
be at the root of many differences, males are more "expendable" from this
point of view, one male and many females can result in a fast growing
population, the opposite is not true.

Now that I have tried to point out that I do not feel that females have a
"place" in our society I cannot resist Just as a point of humor that
Chemistry is an exoteric form of Cooking ;)



-----Original Message-----
From: synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl
[mailto:synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl]On Behalf Of David G. Dixon
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 11:50 AM
To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
Subject: RE: [sdiy] Female sdiy'ers


>From the university engineering school perspective, I would have to say
that
women are every bit as competent as men (was there any doubt?) and, in most
cases, far less "high maintenance" from a teacher's point of view -- they
mostly just "get on with it".  There is a respectable number of women
entering the engineering fields now.  Interestingly, they seem mostly
attracted to the more chemistry-oriented fields -- indeed, women now
apparently make up the majority of chemical engineering students nationwide
-- which seem to repel the men somewhat.  In my department, we've had many
students who have professed that they chose our department over chemical
engineering because they did not want to have to "do chemistry" but this
does not seem to be the case with the females.  Go figure.

David G. Dixon
Professor
Department of Materials Engineering
University of British Columbia
309-6350 Stores Road
Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4
Canada

Tel 1-604-822-3679
Fax 1-604-822-3619

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl [mailto:synth-diy-
> bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of Ian Fritz
> Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 8:39 AM
> To: Scott; Tom Wiltshire; George Hearn
> Cc: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> Subject: RE: [sdiy] Female sdiy'ers
>
> At 09:24 AM 6/16/2009, Scott wrote:
> >This discussion could start to tread on some dangerous ground...
>
> Indeed, there is lots of politcal attitude involved in any discussion of
> this. I've worked with quite a few female physicists and engineers.  They
> are all very competent.  So I know that women are equally smart, equally
> able to do advanced math, etc. The question of why more women don't go
> into
> these fields is complex.  Certainly there is still a bit of prejudice
> against them that they have to fight.  But I think there is a case for
> them
> being somewhat predisposed to other fields. I think, for example, there
> are
> many more females in the softer sciences, such as biology, psychology,
> etc.  So I'd say there seem to be natural differences in interests but not
> in intelligence or ability.
>
>    Ian
>
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