[sdiy] Female sdiy'ers

[Aaron Lanterman]

On Jun 16, 2009, at 9:40 AM, Tom Wiltshire wrote:

> When I applied for university, I attended some open days for  
> electronic engineering courses. At the time, I was surprised that  
> the entire room was full of geeky boys. Obviously for a single 19- 
> year old, this was a big negative point, so in the end I did  
> philosophy instead, and life took a different course. I'd be  
> interested to know if the situation is any different these days,  
> since it is still an interesting question: why don't more women do  
> engineering subjects? Perhaps the roomful of geeky boys is as big a  
> turnoff for them as it was for me!

This is an extremely complex issue. As a university professor it's  
something I've spent a lot of time thinking about, and there's lots of  
debate about it. There's NSF grants studying the issue - some of my  
colleagues are specifically funded to research the issue.

In Computer Science, the classic seminal text that started exploring  
this issue is "Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing," by  
Margolis & Fisher.

My dad has built and flown remote controlled airplanes for 50 years...  
I recall him saying that in that entire time, he had seen at most one  
or two female pilots.

- Aaron