Re: girls and computers, was: Gendered Communication

[Karen Kay <karenk -at- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

Steve Owens said:
>       I'll make up some numbers off the top of my head to illustrate.
> Let's say the likelihood to use computers among college students is
> distributed thus:

>       PolySci Weenies         10%
>       Math Weenies            20%
>       Humanities Weenies      10%
>       Business Weenies        10%

This is exactly the part at which I have problems. I dispute these
numbers, made up though they be. I want to know how the Math Weenies
got to be 20%, and that's what you've never explained to me.

>       Now, would you say that humanities weenies are *less* likely,
> or that math weenies are *more* likely?

I thought the original discussion was about math weenies vs. humanities
weenies. That's what I was talking about. Without bringing in the rest
of the university. (At least at the university where I taught for
seven years, btw, every Business student learned to use computers
because it was part of the major. Math majors were less likely to be
computer users. But I think that takes us WAY off the subject.)

>       More to the point, the factors that result in this spread are
> factors which affect the math weenies, (that computer science has its
> roots in math), more than factors which affect the rest.

But who cares where the roots are? All I care about is the here and
now. And now, I am a geek, and I was able to put my own computer
together (with some counsel). There's no math necessary. *That's*
my point. To use a computer effectively, you don't need to be a
math weenie.

>       I quite agree, I'm simply explaining why math majors tend to
> find out first :-)

Math majors find out first because they are boys, and keep the
girls from the computers. (That's as convincing to me as anything
else you've said.)

Karen
  karenk -at- netcom -dot- com