I went to Carnegie Mellon University for Computer Science. US News and World Report consistently ranks this the #1 program, usually tied with MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. In the late 90s, the program was known to have a higher Dave-to-female ratio. While the number of females have vastly increased since then, there is still the perception that there are only a handful of females in technology, and those who exists look like males, still exists. The ones who are even remotely attractive are thought to have batted their eyes at the males to get them to do their homework and help them pass exams.
I hope to dispel that image and show that there are female engineers who are intelligent, beautiful, and socially adroit. I want to show that it's possible for females to chat about their latest technolust while getting manicures. Or for sorority girls to build robots or write their own virtual reality simulator (as I am also a proud sister of Alpha Chi Omega sorority).
So welcome to my blog.
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The Modern Tech Female
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3 comments:
What motivates the need to dispel such stereotypes about female engineers? For those who subscribe to this stereotype, one counterexample does little, and for those who understand that being pretty and smart are not mutually exclusive, this distinction is redundant.
This isn't for starting a flame war; mostly I'm curious.
Do you really think one counterexample does little? In many cases of stereotypes, you're probably right. But somehow, I feel like I have encountered past classmates and coworkers of varying ages who thought that no counterexamples to this stereotype existed. Many can cite with great admiration and specific detail about the person they came across who changed their opinion and allowed them to give others the benefit of the doubt upon introduction. This inspires me.
I think that many people who subscribe to stereotypes do so because they can't recognize exceptions to the rule, so even when presented with one they don't acknowledge it; to them it simply doesn't make sense. See, I'm stereotyping people who stereotype.
As a female engineering student, who considers herself fairly attractive, I've always been a minority, but I never felt like an endangered species, so much that my existence has been questioned. I'm not really the manicure type, but to each her own.
You might enjoy this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmRSuYIL1zc&eurl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJZ6JJN_ON4&eurl
FYI, since I know who you are, it's only fair that you know who I am. I'm better known to you as fws.
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