Ask Dr Karen
Are groups promoting women excluding the guys?
Question from Alex:
Hi my name is Alex and I’m male.
I heard about Nerd Girls from your interview on the BBC World News.
I wonder what value there is to a group dedicated to isolating scientifically affluent men from same-said women?
I am a nerd. I adore smart and capable women: Danica McKellar, Madeline L’Engle, Marie Curie, Hypatia… See, I can name some. Madeline L’Engle encouraged me to develop my “impossible” tesseract models. Doesn’t the future intellect of our species require that these people get together and have Bach-like children as a way to demonstrate to the ashamed or closet nerd that it’s all right and that together we can reinvent our own species as a better, brighter being than any non-scientifically based culture in our world’s history has ever imagined for their future, let alone what they produced?
I can meet nerdy and dweeby guys all day, every day; but, for some reason, nerdy women don’t seem to run in, or even near, the same circles as nerdy men.
Do nerdy women “turn off” when a nerdy man is around, or something like that?
By the way, the term “girls” to refer to “women” is overtly condescending and makes them lesser beings in their own minds. Adults who think of themselves as “girls” and “boys” are not nearly as powerful and capable as they who consider themselves to be “men” and “women”.
Answered by Dr K on February 03, 2012:
Boy oh Boy! You DO have lots of questions. So here I present LOTS of answers!
First of all, we don’t isolate anyone from joining nerd girls! We have guys who declare themselves Nerd Girl supporters and want to help the cause. Some of our self declared “Nerd Boys” and “Nerd Guys” even wrote our hip-hop theme song and join our projects.
One third of our members are men who have female friends, daughters, wives, sisters and mothers who all want
to know what they can do and how they can show support and encourage their friends and loved ones to stick with their dreams.
We are about community and empowering girls and women. We strongly believe that engaging 1/2 the population ( i.e., only women) is not going to
change global social attitudes. It takes everyone’s support. Back when women wanted to vote in the U.S., of course they gathered women supporters, but they also had men behind them pushing for the cause, and no doubt, that made a huge difference.
If you look at some TV shows and you see women clamoring around a single guy to vie to be his trophy or shallow women only focusing in on how important her physical beauty is, what message does this send to everyone? Boys lose respect for their female peers and girls think this is what is expected of them to be socially acceptable.
Our resources are about providing youth, young women, parents and educators with a community that includes the tools, role models and education to inspire youth to pursue math, science, technology and engineering.
Yesterday, my nerd girl team and I met with over 300 Girl Scouts at an event called “Math Moves You”. The girls, (who were ages 8-11) were so inspired to see that girls just like them are doing incredible things. It showed that anyone can express their own individuality through their creative passions and that this creativity is what is important, not the grade they get on a math test!
Now about your comment stating “I can meet nerdy and dweeby guys all day, every day; but, for some reason, nerdy women don’t seem to run in, or even near, the same circles as nerdy men.”
Hmm, I do see them interacting at all levels but I do see a huge social stigma keeping women out. One of my nerd girls was recently told by one of the
guys she worked with that “The uglier the woman, the better the science”..... Another was told, “she’s too pretty to go into engineering and should
go into marketing.” he was an intern with her at a prestigious engineering company here in the education capitol of the U.S., Boston, MA.
I was even cyber scolded after the airing of the “TODAY SHOW” where I was accused of casting “pretty girls to pretend” to be engineers. Those girls were all my former students and have made tremendous contributions to society.
Do you now see what I mean by needing to get everyone on board including men and women in order to make greater social change to accept
and promote women?
Your next question: Do nerdy women “turn off” when a nerdy man is around, or something like that?
Not at all. Most of the students I have graduated have ended up dating/marrying another “nerd”. They enjoy being able to have intellectual conversations with
them and grew to be friends first through school, work and now the big one: meeting at ballroom dancing or “Nerd country line dancing”.
This is where singles, who proclaim they have “2 left feet”, get together to dance and learn together in a friendly non-intimidating environment.
I can tell you though that guys/women that “ travel in packs” can make it uncomfortable for someone to approach one individual out of the pack.
I need more data on this one before I can infer anything more.
Now, let’s talk about your issue with “girls to refer to women”
I have heard this comment before, but saying “Nerd Women” doesn’t work for the thousands of youth (boys and girls) we outreach too. Adult women still go hang out with female friends and do call them “Girlfriends” and when I first started the program, I asked my young adult women students if they had a problem with being called Nerd Girls. They love the term and feel it’s an honor to be a nerd girl.....and so do the thousands of professional women and college students that have joined Nerd Girls and proudly proclaim themselves as Nerd Girls.
Oh and an FYI: Danica McKellar is a HUGE supporter of the Nerd Girls and was interviewed in the IEEE WIE magazine, which I am editor-in-chief!
What is the difference between an Environmental Scientist versus an Environmental Engineer?
Question from Maggie:
My name is Maggie and I am a prospective College student. My mentor had emailed you and suggested that I get in touch with you as well. I am interested in Environmental Engineering and was hoping you could give me a bit more insight into what that encompasses and how it would differ from an Environmental Science major.
I also checked out your Nerd Girls website. Who knew a Nerd Girls website could distract me for an hour? It is so cool and I think the
work you and others have done is extremely impressive. Thank you so much for your time!
A proud nerd,
Maggie
Answered by Dr K on February 03, 2012:
Hi Maggie! I think it is great that you have someone mentoring you. I would have answered your email even if you are not a prospective engineering
student. I just want all young women to go for their dreams regardless of their major! Anything “engineering” is about finding innovative solutions to problems
to help people or the environment. Environmental science tries to understand the environment and investigate cause-effect relationships.
Now, engineering does this too, but the entire goal is to develop new methods, approaches or technology that solves some issue or helps
scientists make new discoveries.Let me give you an example. Did you know that NASA used to use the space shuttle missions to “observe the earth” The
missions were called Earth observing systems and they found out some very interesting things. One of them
found that fish in Australia were getting Cancer and that this was where the ozone layer was the most depleted. They made the discovery, but how
did they measure this and figure it out? Engineering! The imaging technology and the visualization technology took monstrous
amounts of numerical data and transformed it into pictures and scientists can now use these images (instead of
the tons of numbers) to quickly see trends and make connections. They also found water supplies in the deserts too, using this technology to
help people affected with droughts.Another mission examined the effect of “burning” (Forrest fires, industrial burning etc) and pollutants in the atmosphere.
I would like to introduce you to one of our official Nerd Girls, Michie who is in Environmental Engineering at Colombia! She can
definitely tell you more about her experiences. She is working on weather warning systems for places like Haiti and using renewable energy to power the low-cost devices.
If you say it’s ok, I’ll send her your email so she can write to you.
Thanks for your question and keep us posted on what major you decide on!
Math team star or “brain-waver”?
Question from Chrissy:
I am on the math team and we have made it to the state finals! The problem is that my star athlete boyfriend says that I am embarrassing him by being a “brain waver.” Can you help me? Thank you, Chrissy.
Answered by Dr K on June 27, 2011:
Oooooh, my first reaction is to kick his butt to the curb, but we need to rescue him from his old decrepit man mentality. First of all, I looked up his team record and while I’m not a sports fanatic (except for wrestling), I know losing all but one game is not considered a great season. Now, you would never say you were embarrassed by him being on “a not so stellar team” would you? Or tell him to quit the team? Of course not!
Even if his team was winning, it’s understood that a team is just that, a team. With a team comes wins and losses. What he is failing to recognize is that you are on a team too. You have a role and a commitment to your teammates just like any other team. Anyone on a team should value that. The other thing he is confused about is that he thinks being an intelligent woman is a bad thing. Is it because he is in competition with you and is bothered that you are smarter than him? A good relationship is one where the person with you makes you stronger, is proud of your accomplishments and wants you to be successful at the things that interest you. I can’t tell you how many famous successful people have told me that their partners kept telling them to get real and give up on their dreams. Insecure people react like this sometimes because they are afraid of seeing their partner grow, become successful and move into new circles of friends. This makes them feel they will be left behind. Sadly, by acting this way, they are pretty much ensuring they are.
Consider what would happen if you did quit the team. How would you feel that you gave up something that you liked and were proud of? How would your teammates feel that you dumped them? What about your future dreams? If you want to go on to college, having something as incredible as being on the math team puts you at a huge advantage, not to mention the scholarship opportunities.
Most mature guys understand that an intelligent woman means that she is going to be successful, make lots of her own money so that it’s not all about her being with him just so he can buy her stuff. A good relationship really takes both of you to be a team too. The success of that team depends on how well you work off of each other’s strengths and how much you support each other as each other’s coach. A good coach won’t tell you to lose or to give up. You need to talk to him about and figure out for yourself, whether he is even on your team.
How can I get work experience?
Question from Tina:
How can I get work experience, when everyone only wants to hire someone with work experience? I don’t have any real technology jobs on my resume. How can I possibly get an internship? Thanks, Tina
Answered by Dr K on June 24, 2011:
Tina wow! It is great that you are thinking about getting an internship and actually HAVE a resume. Having a good resume is the first step and it should talk about the skills and assets that you have to offer. It should focus on the skills that are the most important for the particular company you are applying to. This means you have to have different versions of resumes….yes, this is yucky and means more work but people are going to definitely respond better to someone that has a resume where it is evident the applicant spent effort in developing their presentation. Companies care about what courses you are taking, what you do for volunteer work and of course, your interest and knowledge about them. Resumes that get attention are the ones that have a clue of what their company does rather than a resume that appears to just be a broadcast spam.
Remember why companies are hiring interns. They are hoping to get a test drive on candidate that if they like, they can hire later for a full time position and reduce the ramp-up time on training them. If they hire a full time person and the person doesn’t work out, it’s pretty tough and complicated to dump them. Internships last 8-10 weeks and there’s no obligation for a long term commitment…..hmmm sounds like being in a bad relationship with someone who won’t commit! However, in this case, it really works out well for both parties. After the internship, you get something to put on your resume, such as new skills, new professional references and hopefully an idea of what you like or don’t like and perhaps some focus on where you want to move to next. The company gets exposure, and first dibs on trying to recruit you back for either the next year or for a full time job.
So, now let’s answer the real question. How do you get that internship once you have a solid resume (with NO spelling mistakes!!!!). The next step is you become a researcher. You find companies in your commute area. If there’s no form of transportation to get you there, then don’t bother wasting your time or theirs. Don’t just go for companies that you have heard of because that’s too limiting. Do the search, visit their websites and see what they do. If there’s no mention of formal internships, send an email introducing yourself and asking if they have internship opportunities. Try to find a real contact name. Don’t assume that the contact person is a “Dear Sir”, that’s a wicked turn off. I actually answer those inquiries by telling the person that I am not a guy and warn them to do their research better in future attempts. Most people will just delete these immediately especially if you say “Dear Sir, I really want to work at your XYZ company.” Yet, you filled in the incorrect company name because you forgot to change it during your massive edits and email blasts.
Check out a company’s social mission. A lot of companies do outreach and community service projects with their employees and hold events that is open to the public. Offer to volunteer at these events. This is a great way to connect personally with individuals that are employees of that company, and find out more about what they do. Ultimately, you will network with people that can perhaps get a resume and a good word in for you. Many companies require you fill out on-line applications before they will even consider you. Go ahead and do this but the story doesn’t end there.
What will distinguish you from all the other candidates? Participating in outreach with younger kids is always an incredible experience for them and for you. Kids have parents, parents have jobs and this can be an awesome network for you to get your internship. So, even if your coaching kiddie cheerleading, or soccer or dance or tutoring in your community, you will get to meet the parents and find out more about career opportunities and companies in your community. Of course, this means you have to be nice to the kids and can’t just volunteer with the intent of finding yourself a job. Showing up on time, being prepared and enthusiastic about what you do shines through and these are the most valuable assets anyone can have.
Good Luck and let us know how the job search goes.