I wanted to say something else about the math discussion we were having. I needed to cool off a little.
I'm not a huge radical. I'm not trying to say "numbers of people in STEM must be equal." I think a lot of posters here are saying, however, that women are leaving STEM mostly because
a. They don't have the ability
b. They just aren't interested
And they're saying that the opposition wants to force women into something for which they just simply don't have the aptitude and inclination. "Why must women be forced to master mathematics."
(One good argument is that women are responsible for the education of their boys--at least initially--so if you want your sons to be well-educated, you had better'd educate your women. And if you think "there's not that much to arithmetic," I can tell you: clearly your mom didn't know that much math, baby.)
But I'm not arguing about any of that. I'm saying that women in STEM are having to put up with an absolutely absurd amount of sexist behavior, harassment, and just general
awfulness. I don't want to go down the long list, nor am I saying "and therefore we must be careful of the lady's feefees because otherwise they will leave STEM."
But yes, I've been sexually harassed by a guy with tenure, and I've had people assume for me that I'd rather have a baby than a PhD (I mean, there's nothing wrong with that--but
maybe they're wrong, hm), and I've experienced all kinds of bullshit. I'm still in STEM, by the way.
What I'm trying to say is that folks are being real assholes, systematically, and I would like it if population A stopped shitting on population B arbitrarily. Forget about the numbers for a minute, and the money, and all of that. What this is all about for me is that one group is being absolute bastards to another one for
no reason. That's it. That's why you should support Women in STEM. Because you should support people when other people are treating them like crap.
I think we've already got an evangelical Christian who thinks they're chosen by God, don't we?
no see St. Joan actually WAS chosen by god