Originally Posted by intparent
Unfortunately, our girls still have to be pretty tough to succeed in some of the male dominated fields, even with their high IQs. My D20 is researching on campus in computer science at her college this summer (second summer on this project, so getting pretty knowlegable). Her prof arranged a conference call with some teams at other universities doing similar research so they could compare data and issues. Partway thru the call, my D recognized a problem a young man from another college was describing, and asked a question. Dead silence on the phone, then the guys says "Is there a GIRL on this call??". I give her prof credit, he said, "Yes, there are three WOMEN from my team on this call." Followed by awkward silence -- then the guy went on, and didn't acknowledge or answer her question! She was embarrassed and angry. It sure doesn't help her feel intellectually validated when that kind of crap happens. frown

I have worked in IT since 1986 and have only seen this sort of behavior from a minority of Indian men. a) - pretending not to hear a question when they realise that the other person will potentially make their cluelessness obvious and b) seemingly incapable of accepting correction from a woman. Admittedly, I started out in IT when the average IQ (or PRI, at least) of a programmer was probably higher (lower PRI was weeded out via aptitude tests) and have worked at companies considered leaders in their fields.


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