Crossroads - Summer 2014

tions that look more like fraternities, sororities, or cultural groups. In the STEM fields, this can lead to blind spots that prevent ideas and research from being adopted. These organizations are also in the position of being labeled as preferential, fanatic, lobbyist, and generally less credible.

8. GIVING WOMEN CREDIT
INCREASES YOUR LEVERAGE,
BUT GIVING OUT ACCOLADES FOR
BEING A WOMAN DOES NO T.

In general, not giving appreciation and credit builds resentment within individuals and that leads to general unhappiness and diminished values. Appreciation is just an ongoing lookout for contributions. On the other hand, awards tied to labels are less appreciative and can even have the opposite effect of encouragement. I’ve always thought it more beneficial to actively look for ways of expressing appreciation rather than to sit around and discuss who is “the best woman in blah.”

9. I DON’T WANT ANY SPECIAL
DAYS FOR MY ARCHETYPE.

In a legendary “ 60 Minutes” interview Morgan Freeman asked Mike Wallace, “Which month is White History Month?”. Freeman then explained, “I don’t want a Black History Month.

Black history is American history.” I’m
not saying the gender experience is any-
thing like the African-American expe-
rience, but I do share the opinion that
there is no need to create special events
for being born with specific genetic
predispositions. Creating such skewed
evaluation of what is considered con-
tributory doesn’t particularly help in
term. As a wise man once said, “Every
time you shut a door on someone, you
are narrowing your own horizons.”
As an additional note, if the person
behind is a woman, the worst response
the woman can give is “that was not a
gentleman thing to do,” which reflects
an unnecessary and unprofessional
typecast. Using stereotypes as ammo is
kind of like buying a gun. If you are not
an expert at using guns, the assaulter
can grab it and use it against you caus-
ing even more damage than if there ex-
isted no gun in the first place. Gender-
fueled prerogatives create a precedent
that detracts from the real issue: Sin-
gleton, self-absorbed researchers and
professionals who are narrowing their
own horizons by not opening doors for
others. This is a loss of value that actu-
ally has no gender issues attached un-
less we make it so.

6. DEVELOP SUBCULTURES BY
RELATING THEM TO IDEAS RATHER
THAN GENDER, RACE, COLOR ETC.

Many minority and majority groups have gained significant influence on society by creating subcultures that expand our life experience. Programmers who decided to develop higher level programming languages rather than continuing to program in assem-bly-like instructions were real definers of a subculture. Initially rejected by the rest of the community, these new ideas actually needed time to mature. The larger community evaluates the matured versions of those ideas. Then, if accepted, those ideas generate impact. All of this is not possible without the initial formation of subcultures around ideas and not stereotypes. The harshest thing that comes with talking a lot about gender issues is it can divert attention from evaluating the ideas and can hinder the creation of necessary subculture to push STEM for ward.

7. AVOID ONE-DIMENSIONAL
CRONYISM, IN THIS CASE
GENDER-RELATED.

Cronyism is the act of practicing par-
tiality to long-standing friends. There’s
nothing wrong with helping out your
buddies. However, this assumes peo-
ple don’t just pick their friends based
on stereotypes. Such one-dimensional
cronyism gives rise to large organiza-
artificially engineered social environ-
ments. By and large, labels like “crazy,”
“intelligent,” “genius,” “black,” “white,”
and “gay” are more fashionable rather
than constructive diversifiers.

10. STOP TALKING ABOUT IT.
MOST TALKING ONLY ENCOURAGES
THE STATUS QUO.

When I was an undergraduate at the U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I started the Women in Electrical and Computer Engineering (WECE) program. This was a much smaller organization in addition to the larger Society of Women Engineers (SWE). At the time, I observed that somehow raising awareness at SWE had turned into a series of fundraising bake sales, high-school awareness, and motivational speakers talking a lot about how to survive as a woman in engineering. I wanted WECE to be more of a nest. A place where those who wanted to become interested in engineering could get the extra nurturing needed to grow in a different direction than the predominantly male engineering field. Now, I realize there are diverse opinions within the male community as well, which are often left off the table because of the status quo. If I were to start a similar program today, I would focus on removing as many thought-limiting stereotypes as possible (not just gender related). Luckily, STEM participants have a wonderful subculture that constantly motivates them to think and build new things that will help create a context for all the other mechanisms of the world without focusing on attaching labels of any kind. It’s the best opportunity for me to participate in a for ward-thinking community while helping validate ideas that haven’t manifested before.

References

[ 1] Waldron, B. Hillary Clinton Wants Young Women to ‘Grow Skin Like A Rhinoceros.’ ABC News. Feb. 13, 2014. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/ politics/2014/02/hillary-clinton-wants-young- women-to-grow-skin-like-a-rhinoceros/

Biography

Grace Woo is the inventor of VRCodes, an unobtrusive way of embedding visual information for the camera. She is currently the co-founder of Pixels. IO, a venture focused on giving visual context to mobile devices.