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Next: Why should I care Up: Accessibility of Computer Science: Previous: But the instructor's attitude

   
Where do prejudices come from?

Professor Alpha had previous female students. He found them too quiet, and they had too little background. Two of them dropped out. And his daughter and sister have no talent in Computer Science.

Would you like to have your potential judged on the basis of your brother's skills?

Or on the basis of the weakest student in your class in high school (gymnasium)?

Unfortunately, children as young as three years old have been shown to have formed restricting gender stereotypes (for example, that girls cannot be doctors [1]), so it is unlikely that any of us are free of them. We need to be aware of the tendency and compensate for it.


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A man and his son are in an auto accident. The man dies, and the son is rushed to the hospital for surgery. In the operating room, the doctor says, ``I can't do the operation; this is my son!" How is this possible?


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``Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths."
Bertrand Russell

References/Resources!:}26


next up previous
Next: Why should I care Up: Accessibility of Computer Science: Previous: But the instructor's attitude
Dianne O'Leary
1999-06-25