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! 

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