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International Women and girls in Science Day!
February 11, 2019 at 3:16 pm
Not a lot of women join careers in STEM Fields. But that's changing! And it's something worth celebrating. My oldest granddaughter is pursuing a STEM Field (namely, physics) and I couldn't be more proud. Girls should be encouraged to go into scientific and mathematics fields. Especially since so few are there. I didn't even know this WAS a day until I got a text from my granddaughter. We could use more days like this. Seems a lot more important than Columbus (who 'discovered' a continent that already had people living on it) day. But then again, I suppose you can't have a "Women in Stem Sale!" so it won't get as much attention.
"Tradition" is just a word people use to make themselves feel better about being an asshole.
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RE: International Women and girls in Science Day!
February 11, 2019 at 3:38 pm
Hard to get excited about a blatantly sexist holiday. I wouldn't mind a holiday that celebrates a woman of great scientific achievement. We could even replace Columbus Day with it, since Columbus was not a very nice guy.
We do not inherit the world from our parents. We borrow it from our children.
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RE: International Women and girls in Science Day!
February 11, 2019 at 3:41 pm
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool." - Richard P. Feynman
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RE: International Women and girls in Science Day!
February 11, 2019 at 3:43 pm
Women should have an equal chance to blow themselves up.
![[Image: Woman-Holding-Beaker-of-Liquid.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=carrington.edu%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F11%2FWoman-Holding-Beaker-of-Liquid.jpg)
I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem.
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RE: International Women and girls in Science Day!
February 11, 2019 at 4:20 pm
(February 11, 2019 at 3:38 pm)Yonadav Wrote: Hard to get excited about a blatantly sexist holiday. I wouldn't mind a holiday that celebrates a woman of great scientific achievement. We could even replace Columbus Day with it, since Columbus was not a very nice guy.
What, exactly, is sexist about a holiday that encourages women to get into STEM again?
"Tradition" is just a word people use to make themselves feel better about being an asshole.
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RE: International Women and girls in Science Day!
February 11, 2019 at 4:31 pm
(February 11, 2019 at 4:20 pm)Divinity Wrote: (February 11, 2019 at 3:38 pm)Yonadav Wrote: Hard to get excited about a blatantly sexist holiday. I wouldn't mind a holiday that celebrates a woman of great scientific achievement. We could even replace Columbus Day with it, since Columbus was not a very nice guy.
What, exactly, is sexist about a holiday that encourages women to get into STEM again?
The same thing that makes Men's Day sexist.
We do not inherit the world from our parents. We borrow it from our children.
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RE: International Women and girls in Science Day!
February 11, 2019 at 5:27 pm
(February 11, 2019 at 3:16 pm)Divinity Wrote: Not a lot of women join careers in STEM Fields. But that's changing! And it's something worth celebrating. My oldest granddaughter is pursuing a STEM Field (namely, physics) and I couldn't be more proud. Girls should be encouraged to go into scientific and mathematics fields. Especially since so few are there. I didn't even know this WAS a day until I got a text from my granddaughter. We could use more days like this. Seems a lot more important than Columbus (who 'discovered' a continent that already had people living on it) day. But then again, I suppose you can't have a "Women in Stem Sale!" so it won't get as much attention.
I have a little gathering every Halloween, and last year my niece (13) was bugging her parents to leave early because she had to get home and do her math homework. Parents were dawdling over the single malt, and she became insistent: "I have to keep up my grades, so I can get into Princeton, and become an astrophysicist!"
For years I've been giving her science toys, and trying to encourage an interest in same, but this was the first inkling I'd had of this particular ambition, so I emailed her mom the next day and, turns out that yeah, she had recently developed an interest in astrophysics, and had taken to perusing science texts for her light reading.
Whoa.
So for Christmas I got her a serious telescope, a collection of books by Sagan, Hawking, and a few others (she'd already discovered Tyson), and a membership to the local planetarium. So far, she seems serious and focused, and -- damn -- she reads faster than I do.
I am quite vicariously proud of her. 
--
Dr H
"So, I became an anarchist, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."
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RE: International Women and girls in Science Day!
February 11, 2019 at 5:53 pm
I am a woman in a STEM career, and am happy to say I have witnessed the tide changing since I started working almost 30 years ago. There is quite a way to go, but there has been some progress.
If The Flintstones have taught us anything, it's that pelicans can be used to mix cement.
-Homer Simpson
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RE: International Women and girls in Science Day!
February 11, 2019 at 5:59 pm
(This post was last modified: February 11, 2019 at 6:29 pm by BrianSoddingBoru4.)
(February 11, 2019 at 4:31 pm)Yonadav Wrote: (February 11, 2019 at 4:20 pm)Divinity Wrote: What, exactly, is sexist about a holiday that encourages women to get into STEM again?
The same thing that makes Men's Day sexist.
Every day has been Men's Day for the last 5000 years. Given the abysmally low representation of women in STEM fields, I don't think this one day a year to encourage female participation in these areas counts as 'sexist'.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
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RE: International Women and girls in Science Day!
February 11, 2019 at 7:59 pm
I met my wife in Modern Physics class at the university. We both have a B Sc degree in physics. She never used hers. She had kids and was a stay-at-home mom. Now she works in a financial institution in quality control and I'm a stay at home husband.
If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.
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