If someone verbally advising against
your career of choice deters you from pursuing it, you probably don't
want it bad enough anyway. Even more so, if stereotypes, which are
perceived but not real opposition, are keeping women from studying
computer science, then perhaps it is for the best. The real problem
is that pre-college exposure to computer science (CS) is so limited
that both males and females need to rely on stereotypes to evaluate
CS as a potential career. The solution is not to change the
stereotypes, but to decrease ignorance by increasing early exposure.
Once an individual has decided on CS, outside pressure shouldn't have
any influence on that decision.
I agree that we need to increase early exposure to the sciences (and especially CS), but I disagree with your earlier point that someone might not "want it bad enough" if they are dissuaded from a career choice by someone they look to as an adviser. Not everyone is able to be passionate enough about their interests that those interests can stand up to criticism.
ReplyDeleteEven more likely is that they were verbally dissuaded from becoming interested in the first place. And it's tiring to have to have to stand up for your interests day after day. Being interested in something shouldn't require justification to your peers. That's pretty preposterous.
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