🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi,

Martin Gregorie wrote:
>> I think you may be right that it's early adolescence. Almost every 
>> single one of those female programmers of the early and middle 60s, 
>> after all, must have been planning to do something else with their 
>> lives when they were 13.
>>
> I think its much earlier than that. Conditioning starts at least with 
> toddlers or earlier: when boys are given cars and girls are given dolls.

You are right that there may be very subtle means of conditioning.

But an interesting point is that if you give cars *and* dolls both to 
boys *and* girls, the probability is high that the boy chooses a car and 
the girl does not.

Never seen a father trying to play with cars with his daughter? After a 
short time, the father is the only one who plays with the car. ;-)

Not to misunderstand me: I do not think that it is *desirable* to 
educate or 'conditionate' children to certain gender-specific behaviour. 
But I think that on the other hand it is not helpful to deny that there 
are 'natural' differences. If you deny them (because "it cannot be true 
what should not be true"), you will never be able to overcome 
discrimintaion.

I always must smile when I see the many projects that exist in germany 
since many, many years, that try to integrate and motivate girls for 
technical jobs. A reporter comes and takes a photo of a few girls who 
forces themselves to smile into the camera. They do not seem to be 
interested at all although they really struggle to be interested because 
"they are girls and girls must be as interested in technical things just 
as boys".

The fact is: Although girls are always encouraged to chose technical 
jobs, they just don't do it. What does this tell us?

Ciao,
Ingo