OT RE: "That's a step, but let's try convincing those women to stay the course and not drop out of engineering after freshman year. I think attrition is still too high among female engineering students."
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Hi Ten,
In my last upper-level CS course (at a competitive school rated as having the 2nd to 5th-best CS dept), we started with two women and we ended with two women.
I think male enrollment dropped by 50% during the course of the semester.
If one of us had dropped the course, the female enrollment would have dropped by 50% too- but somehow that doesn't seem like an equivalent statistic when you look at how many women started in the course (2).
So, I think the problem is more related to the number of women who enter CS/Engineering and their first few years in life: what toys do they play with when they are children?
I was always the banker in Monopoly. In another toy game, I was always building with building blocks and I loved playing with this see-through telephone when I was four (because I could see all the components and mechanisms), because of my love for building/creating/inventing. I personally never found Barbie to be a brain-building creative toy IMHO. In fact, even when I was little, I always felt Barbie seemed a bit, well, you know.
I don't think people are born smart, but rather earn it through hard work, or through the toys/sports they play, or through the experiences they go through which create learning opportunities.
Regards,
Amy J |
