Congress, STEM, and Space

I'm trying this from Myrtle Beach on my BB.

I would disagree with Dr. Ride. What happens to humans at the ages that correlate to the grade levels she mentions?

Puberty.

Unless you've forgotten, everything in a child's life begins to revolve around the societal path towards mating and reproduction at this time.

The issues Dr. Ride raises are not societal, but biological. They work to ensure the continuation of the species.

So only the female students get so sidetracked by reproduction that they tend to sway away from the sciences?

The a discrepancy between the number of men and women in STEM has nothing to do with ensuring the continuation of our species.

KP, I was on the Internet Movie Database this AM, reading the memorable quotes from "Toy Story 2".

What happened to Emily as she became a teenager, and how did it affect Jessie?

I blew past the astronaut's maximum height at age 10, in 1965. I still followed the goings-on, after all, they would land on the Moon four years later. How could a kid not be interested?

But as time passed, I found other things to be interested in; radio and electronics, muscle cars. I was told that I had a great radio voice, and should pursue that career path. I never got there.

If everyone pursued scientific careers, who would be left to do all of the other things that make the world go around?

Sally mentions the schools' "beating it out of them." This is, IMHO, the tip of a huge iceberg.

Last October, I had an interesting conversation with Billy Rose, one of the Rocket Boys. Seems that my educational experience was quite similar to his, that being "it's OK to dream, just don't dream too far."

Like many, I followed my father into the steel mill, but was fortunate to have learned a trade that was useful when the mill closed.

So, what have your educational experiences been like? Did your school, like mine, actively discourage you from pursuing a technical career? Do you currently work in a male-dominated technical field? I invite you, and all who read this, to share.

I have been working in the field of industrial instrumentation and control systems for the past 30 years. It's as far from my childhood "dream" of playing records on the radio as I could be!

My post is not to say that everyone should be going into technical and scientific fields of work. I mean that there must be something happening which is driving women away from it more so than men. As a woman, that concerns me and I wouldn't dismiss it to puberty.

I don't know that my schools ever discouraged me from pursuing a technical field, though I didn't enter one. I work for NASA in a non-technical position and I'm happy to be where I am. My parents always encouraged me to pursue something STEM-related because I did well in those subjects, but I ended up swaying away.

Personally, whether it be because of my parents' influence, my unbiased educators, or my natural abilities, I never felt as though technical fields were off limits to me. It still concerns me that these are male-dominated fields, though, and I would like to understand why.