Category Archives: ranting

First rule of Science Club: We don’t talk about lack of girls in Science Club

ENIAC_scientists_holding_various_parts_of_the_computer

I was beyond thrilled when my third-grade daughter signed up for Science Club as her choice of after-school program this year. Make crazy experiments that will impress your friends! was enough description for her. While she is no stranger to the ballet barre and My Little Pony marathons, she calls science her favorite subject. Her most recent library treasure is the Mythbusters book of experiments, and all I know about it is that I’m supposed to now go out and buy corn starch and a drop cloth, and I’m a little nervous.

What surprised me, however, was that Thalia told me she’s only one of 6 girls in the club. Out of about 30. And this is in Liberal York City.

It never crossed my mind that this wouldn’t be a popular class with girls, especially with one of the most coveted teachers in the school.

Certainly there are a number of reasons that girls don’t pursue science/technology/engineering/mathematical (STEM) related passions–gender bias in the classroom (yay, my mom gets a quote in that piece), toy stores that put the science kits in the boys’ aisle, computer classes overwhelmingly targeted to boys, lack of visible female role models. However that is where my agreements with The Kernel Editor Milo Yiannopoulous’ The Lady Doth Protest Too Much takedown of women in tech starts and ends.

Oh, this article is juicy my friends. SEO’d, maximized for quotability,  linkbait ready–and I’m biting.

The “women in tech” experiment has been a disaster, he writes. Then goes on to explain that the tech industry is not sexist. In fact, not only is it not sexist but it’s one of the most welcoming meritocracies of any industry I’ve ever worked in. And so shot through is it with well-meaning, bien pensant metropolitan liberalism it’s in fact perpetually bending over double to provide quotas, positive discrimination and excess airtime. . . .

Wow.  Continue reading

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