What makes the environment chilly?

Each woman reacts differently, but some may be made uneasy by conditions such as these:

• few women assistants and faculty members to serve as role models [1,2].

• reduced access to study groups [1,9].

• programming projects designed for male interests [3].

• devaluing of women's contributions, especially attributing them to male colleagues [2,4].

• friction between women coping by being ``one of the boys" in work habits, socialization, and competitiveness, and those seeking an alternative path [5,10].

• hostile attitude from a few male students [4].

• expectation of instructor that she will do poorly [6,7] and negative feedback from instructors [8, p.51].

• classes that overwhelmingly use male language (``the user ... he", or ``suppose that your wife...") and gender-stereotyped examples [4].

Each is just a little issue, but the cumulative effect can be overwhelming.

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``However, the lack of social and professional connections available to most women in academic science and engineering departments, in concert with overt and covert gender bias as well as differences in socialization, creates special and unique problems for women."
H. Etzkowitz, C. Kemelgor, M. Neuschatz, B. Uzzi

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``I have always believed that contemporary gender discrimination within universities is part reality and part perception. True, but I now understand that reality is by far the greater part of the balance."
Charles M. Vest, president of MIT

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