Girl's engineering toy

I read an interesting article today about a new toy designed to get girls interested in engineering.  Now before you begin reading any farther if you are feminist, if you get easily offended, please don’t read this, because you will probably get offended, and then you will be all mad and the truth is I don’t care so please save us both trouble and find something else to read.  If however you have an open mind are really interested in hearing other people’s opinions then please keep reading.

As I was reading this I was reminded of what my son said the day he came home from his first introduction to engineering class.  “our instructor said that he was going to grade the girls easier so as to encourage them to continue in engineering.”  Now first I’m not against girls in engineering or math or science or whatever they want to do, except soldiering, police officering and firefighting, so yes I’m a sexist pig if you want to think that.  For the record I don’t think men should be bearing children either, and I don’t think we are too far off from the tech that might allow that but that is for another blog.

You see I believe that men and woman are different, and I think this is a good thing.  Now I’m not opposed to a toy that is designed for girls that deals with engineering, whatever to make a buck is fine with me.  But what if these efforts don’t lead to more girls in science and engineering and mathematics classes and programs?  Then do we adopt some Title 9 program designed to make sure that there is an equitable number of women in these fields?

I read an article awhile back on Title 9 sports requirements in colleges.  This article claimed that the female participation rate in co-ed colleges was about 25% of the women who attended any particular college.  I forget what the male participation rate was but it was much higher.  Apparently though there has to be some equitable balance between woman and men’s sports and so in some places men’s sports programs were being canceled because there wasn’t enough female participation to get the right balance.  The article then went on to look at all girls colleges.  It stated the participation rate in athletics among women at all female schools was about 25%.  Now I’m sure there will be some that will say that’s because men discourage woman from playing sports and discourage them from exploring science yada, yada, yada.

But maybe the real truth is that men and woman are different, and instead of trying to do away with that difference we should celebrate and learn to value it.  Or maybe we should start making the m4 and bazookas and stuff in pastel colors to encourage more girls to play army.  For the record I take my daughter paint balling when she wants to go and some of her girl friends come to.  But a lot of them just don’t like being hit because it hurts and leaves bruises.  Maybe we should start shooting them with paint balls at a younger age.

Oh and here's the link to the article http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/can-a-kids-toy-bring-more-women-into-engineering/262373/