>>I have just participated in a study here at MIT concerning this topic. It
>>seems that the single biggest factor in our group was having encouraging
>>parents. None of the women in the study group (all of us were graduate
>>students or Post-Docs in science) had parents who failed to ACTIVELY encourage
>>the pursuit of science.
>My parents actively encouraged me and my siters and brothers to be interested
in science and arts as well. Actually to be interestred in the world was their
general principle.
My husband, a scientist also, was discouraged from going to university at all
and made his own way entirely.
>>>Many of us also had very encouraging teachers, but often as not there was an
>>adversarial relationship with elementary school teachers. The teachers tended
>>to tell girls they couldn't do well in science and the parents encouraged the
>>girls to "show them".
>My schooling was disastrous with regard to science and math and anything else
really. My parents taught us most of what we learnt at school age and it wasnt
much!1
>Im trying to encourage my daughter (9.5 yrs) to be interested in science
but books win every time!
>> This raises another (I think important) point. I am sure most of you
> notice how much more verbal participation in seminars, group
> discussions, etc. comes from the male scientists as compared to the
> female scientists. This in itself has got to have a dampening effect
> on the progress of women in science; we need to put ourselves out on a
> limb sometimes, and don't do it enough. Is this something we were
> taught in school? Do other (female) readers feel that the above described
> their schooling?
Actually Ive just given a talk at a seminar on women in science in New Zealand.
We just wanted to show it could be done even with children, though it can be
difficult at times.
>Talking of difficult, anyone got 2 positions to fill? One for a molecular
biologist interested in computational modelling and one for a cancer
epidemiologist who would rather be doing genetic epidemiology.
the other thread of employing spouses etc got me thinking as my husband will
be out of a job in 3 months.
Mary JAne
>
