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Interviews: Adora Svitak Answers Your Questions
Recently, you had a chance to ask child prodigy, author and activist, Adora Svitak, about education and women In STEM and politics. Below you'll find her answers to your questions.
Question
by phantomfive
In your talk you said that kids deserve high expectations. What help do you have to reach your high expectations? What should kids do who don't have the same help?
Adora: A lot of people will say things like "kids this young aren't mature enough to handle this kind of content," with "this kind of content" meaning anything serious or controversial. Since I was a young age, my parents didn't tolerate that kind of closed-mindedness about what their daughters could or couldn't "handle"; they invited us to sit at the "adults' table," and we had the opportunity to discuss current events with family friends. They expected that our age wouldn't preclude us from developing opinions and having causes we believed in. Kids in families with more conservative definitions of what it means to be a child should find high expectations from other places--teachers, mentors, role models--and give those high expectations in turn to peers.
Child prodigies
by Anonymous Coward
To what extent do you believe child prodigies are merely products of their environment?
Adora: To clarify, I've never thought of myself as a child prodigy (contrary to how my Wikipedia page might describe me). I think that everyone's a little bit a product of their environment. My environment happened to be saturated in good literature; I remember having many, many more books than clothes. My parents and babysitters read to my sister and me all the time. I loved writing and found it to be intuitive. In that sense I credit a lot of the development of my abilities to my environment.
Microaggressions
by Kohath
Do you believe in microaggressions? Why or why not? Is a belief in microaggressions helpful or harmful? To whom is it helpful? Who should worry about microaggressions? Who shouldn't? How can someone be certain they are innocent of committing microaggressions? If someone is accused of something like committing microaggressions, are there two sides that must be considered, or only one?
Adora: I never heard of microaggressions as something to be "believed" in or not, I take it fairly for granted that they exist (particularly since I've seen them). There's a great video on YouTube called If Asians Said the Stuff White People Say that does an excellent job of outlining some of the ones folks hear every day. As someone who's half-white, half-Asian (and looks predominantly Asian) I often hear questions like "where are you from? Like, where are your parents from?" Knowing about microaggressions is very helpful, because it allows us to avoid accidentally perpetuating racist or sexist commentary. If someone is accused of committing microaggressions, it's entirely possible that there intentions were good and something hurtful was said accidentally, but that doesn't negate their responsibility to hear the offended party's response so they know how to avoid microaggressions next time.
I Don't Get It
by Tablizer
After seeing my development job outsourced to India in the early 2000's during an IT slump, I have no compulsion to steer my daughter into STEM. I hope she finds a career that she grows into and does well, STEM or not. STEM is in demand at this spot in history, but I've learned the hard way it's subject to fads, bubbles, age discrimination, H1B's, and outsourcing. Please tell me, why push women into such risk? I suspect it's lobbyists trying to get cheaper IT labor for their plutocrat bosses by flooding the market. Feel welcome to convince me otherwise.
Adora: STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) is an extraordinarily broad set of disciplines, and like any set of disciplines, has some areas with more job opportunities and some with less. It's not inherently more risky than any other group of fields to study. Women are no less equipped to handle the "risk" that comes with STEM.
What can be done to get more women into CS?
by squisher
Hi, I'm the "typical" white male in CS gradschool. My subjective view is that CS has one of the lowest number of women compared to other STEM disciplines. I'd estimate that typically there are about 5% tops in classes or at conferences. For various reasons I think that this situation is a shame for the community and society as a whole. What do you think can be done to improve this? Thanks!
Adora: The low numbers of women in STEM should be considered a national shame. One huge problem that prevents more women from either going into CS or continuing with it is "brogramming" culture, especially in Silicon Valley startups, that promotes a macho, objectifying attitude toward women that puts "bros before hoes" (see: ousting of Whitney Wolfe from Tinder after she was harassed by another co-founder there, or Uber's CEO threatening a female journalist) and creates toxic workplace cultures. We need more programs like Girls Who Code and Black Girls Code to give young women a leg up in a supportive environment.
Happy thoughts
by Anonymous Coward
Hi Adora! Looking through any debate on gender issues is somewhat demoralizing, as there seems to be little focus on resolving the underlying issues. What do you think could be done to help people cooperate rather than yelling at each other?
Adora: Creating more opportunities for traditionally underrepresented groups to have their voices heard is incredibly important. Another thing I really like is the idea of "safe space," where groups can talk freely in the knowledge that what they say will not be used against them in any way.
Did TV make us do it?
by mrex
How much credence to you give to the theory recently put forward in a recent NPR Planet Money piece, ascribing the absence of women specifically in the computing industry to 1980s media representation of geeks and computer worker lifestyles?
Adora: My answer to this question is strongly related to my answer to the previous question about bringing more women into CS. I feel that the stereotype of CS as the domain of pasty geeks sitting around laptops in basements is honestly less harmful to the future of women in CS than the implicit or explicit discouragement of young women from entering industry that happens because of insensitive/sexist comments by professors or folks in the work world.
by phantomfive
In your talk you said that kids deserve high expectations. What help do you have to reach your high expectations? What should kids do who don't have the same help?
Adora: A lot of people will say things like "kids this young aren't mature enough to handle this kind of content," with "this kind of content" meaning anything serious or controversial. Since I was a young age, my parents didn't tolerate that kind of closed-mindedness about what their daughters could or couldn't "handle"; they invited us to sit at the "adults' table," and we had the opportunity to discuss current events with family friends. They expected that our age wouldn't preclude us from developing opinions and having causes we believed in. Kids in families with more conservative definitions of what it means to be a child should find high expectations from other places--teachers, mentors, role models--and give those high expectations in turn to peers.
Child prodigies
by Anonymous Coward
To what extent do you believe child prodigies are merely products of their environment?
Adora: To clarify, I've never thought of myself as a child prodigy (contrary to how my Wikipedia page might describe me). I think that everyone's a little bit a product of their environment. My environment happened to be saturated in good literature; I remember having many, many more books than clothes. My parents and babysitters read to my sister and me all the time. I loved writing and found it to be intuitive. In that sense I credit a lot of the development of my abilities to my environment.
Microaggressions
by Kohath
Do you believe in microaggressions? Why or why not? Is a belief in microaggressions helpful or harmful? To whom is it helpful? Who should worry about microaggressions? Who shouldn't? How can someone be certain they are innocent of committing microaggressions? If someone is accused of something like committing microaggressions, are there two sides that must be considered, or only one?
Adora: I never heard of microaggressions as something to be "believed" in or not, I take it fairly for granted that they exist (particularly since I've seen them). There's a great video on YouTube called If Asians Said the Stuff White People Say that does an excellent job of outlining some of the ones folks hear every day. As someone who's half-white, half-Asian (and looks predominantly Asian) I often hear questions like "where are you from? Like, where are your parents from?" Knowing about microaggressions is very helpful, because it allows us to avoid accidentally perpetuating racist or sexist commentary. If someone is accused of committing microaggressions, it's entirely possible that there intentions were good and something hurtful was said accidentally, but that doesn't negate their responsibility to hear the offended party's response so they know how to avoid microaggressions next time.
I Don't Get It
by Tablizer
After seeing my development job outsourced to India in the early 2000's during an IT slump, I have no compulsion to steer my daughter into STEM. I hope she finds a career that she grows into and does well, STEM or not. STEM is in demand at this spot in history, but I've learned the hard way it's subject to fads, bubbles, age discrimination, H1B's, and outsourcing. Please tell me, why push women into such risk? I suspect it's lobbyists trying to get cheaper IT labor for their plutocrat bosses by flooding the market. Feel welcome to convince me otherwise.
Adora: STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) is an extraordinarily broad set of disciplines, and like any set of disciplines, has some areas with more job opportunities and some with less. It's not inherently more risky than any other group of fields to study. Women are no less equipped to handle the "risk" that comes with STEM.
What can be done to get more women into CS?
by squisher
Hi, I'm the "typical" white male in CS gradschool. My subjective view is that CS has one of the lowest number of women compared to other STEM disciplines. I'd estimate that typically there are about 5% tops in classes or at conferences. For various reasons I think that this situation is a shame for the community and society as a whole. What do you think can be done to improve this? Thanks!
Adora: The low numbers of women in STEM should be considered a national shame. One huge problem that prevents more women from either going into CS or continuing with it is "brogramming" culture, especially in Silicon Valley startups, that promotes a macho, objectifying attitude toward women that puts "bros before hoes" (see: ousting of Whitney Wolfe from Tinder after she was harassed by another co-founder there, or Uber's CEO threatening a female journalist) and creates toxic workplace cultures. We need more programs like Girls Who Code and Black Girls Code to give young women a leg up in a supportive environment.
Happy thoughts
by Anonymous Coward
Hi Adora! Looking through any debate on gender issues is somewhat demoralizing, as there seems to be little focus on resolving the underlying issues. What do you think could be done to help people cooperate rather than yelling at each other?
Adora: Creating more opportunities for traditionally underrepresented groups to have their voices heard is incredibly important. Another thing I really like is the idea of "safe space," where groups can talk freely in the knowledge that what they say will not be used against them in any way.
Did TV make us do it?
by mrex
How much credence to you give to the theory recently put forward in a recent NPR Planet Money piece, ascribing the absence of women specifically in the computing industry to 1980s media representation of geeks and computer worker lifestyles?
Adora: My answer to this question is strongly related to my answer to the previous question about bringing more women into CS. I feel that the stereotype of CS as the domain of pasty geeks sitting around laptops in basements is honestly less harmful to the future of women in CS than the implicit or explicit discouragement of young women from entering industry that happens because of insensitive/sexist comments by professors or folks in the work world.
I'm not sure I see this as a 'micro-agression.' Or aggression at all, it's just a question.
You should watch the video. I've seen it (and others before). The issue isn't asking where you are from, it's the non-caucasion person saying they are from "here", and having that answer dismissed/disbelieved and then being asked "No, where are your parents from".
It's a subtle racism that assumes that people who don't look like you can't really have been born on there same country as you.
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