>I'm not talking about inherently unobservable behavior: I'm talking about things like publicly telling female students that women can't be good engineers or scientists. I think public statements like that, made in front of an entire class, are very much observable. Don't you agree?
To nitpick, your anecdote was a presented as a private conversation. Certainly where I am a teacher that told a class that their subject was not for girls/women would be severely reprimanded.
The question at hand is institutionalised sexism - a single instance of apparent bias against a single individual doesn't show that the scientific/engineering establishment nor even the educational establishment [in your country, USA it seems] is biased against females from entering the field.
>you sound like the kind of person who is committed to the belief that sexism doesn't exist or is not significant
I practice sexism myself. I'm more inclined to hold doors for women, I'm more inclined to assist women with traditionally male chores like fixing the car or computer.
The only institutionalised sexism I've observed in education has been special programmes and events put on to encourage women to do things that for whatever reason they've chosen not to do. In business there are programmes for women and extra financial help that isn't available to men. These things are not removing biases they are instigating them.
>You seem confused so let me explain. I never suggested that the story I presented was representative of all teachers. In fact, I explicitly said the opposite of that. What I actually said was: it is false to claim that there does not exist a single person who has ever told young women that women can't do well in science and engineering
So your point then is that there is no institutional bias, that this one bad thing happened to your wife and that is the reason their should now be discrimination against boys/men wanting to do science and engineering and for women regardless of an individuals propensities and abilities. Great.
>>What school was it, who was the teacher?
>Why do you want to know?
Why not, knowledge is power.
To nitpick, your anecdote was a presented as a private conversation. Certainly where I am a teacher that told a class that their subject was not for girls/women would be severely reprimanded.
The question at hand is institutionalised sexism - a single instance of apparent bias against a single individual doesn't show that the scientific/engineering establishment nor even the educational establishment [in your country, USA it seems] is biased against females from entering the field.
>you sound like the kind of person who is committed to the belief that sexism doesn't exist or is not significant
I practice sexism myself. I'm more inclined to hold doors for women, I'm more inclined to assist women with traditionally male chores like fixing the car or computer.
The only institutionalised sexism I've observed in education has been special programmes and events put on to encourage women to do things that for whatever reason they've chosen not to do. In business there are programmes for women and extra financial help that isn't available to men. These things are not removing biases they are instigating them.
>You seem confused so let me explain. I never suggested that the story I presented was representative of all teachers. In fact, I explicitly said the opposite of that. What I actually said was: it is false to claim that there does not exist a single person who has ever told young women that women can't do well in science and engineering
So your point then is that there is no institutional bias, that this one bad thing happened to your wife and that is the reason their should now be discrimination against boys/men wanting to do science and engineering and for women regardless of an individuals propensities and abilities. Great.
>>What school was it, who was the teacher? >Why do you want to know? Why not, knowledge is power.