Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber
Why is it the engineering community's job to attract young women to the field? Shouldn't we merely be presenting the facts to everyone and letting them make an informed decision?
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It might not be the responsibility of "the engineering community", but it's definitely in the interests of of FIRST to attract everyone. If that means targeted marketing, that's what we should do.
The goal is to change the culture. We have a pretty good idea what we want to change it
to. However, it's not counterproductive to recognize what we want to change it
from. We need to apply forces in the right places and in the right directions to make the changes. If that means implicitly acknowledging that society in general seems to make unnecessary distinctions between boys and girls, so be it. Just leave those distinctions in the background and don't give them undue attention. They aren't a law of nature; they are a feature of the culture. If absolutely everybody acts as if they do not exist, eventually they won't.