I do capoeira, a brazilian martial art. It is a good aerobic workout, and a great (the best, in my opinion) strength workout. Since the art puts a lot of emphasis on maneuvering in small spaces, I can practice on the floor of my lab when I need a break from coding.
In my first year I went from being moderately overweight to looking like an athlete, it is really quite effective for getting in shape, because it works your body in every possible way.
I am a woman working on a PhD in robotics (EE). I think that this will never work, as by the time you reach college level, there are simply more men interested in science. I think that it is a societal issue, but it starts much younger, perhaps middle school.
When I was in the public school system I was strongly discouraged by many teachers from entering a math field. Likewise, many smart women I know did well in math classes up until high school, when they mysteriously lost interest, or it "got hard", or something. I don't really buy that women are naturally uninterested, I think that pressure to conform starts to hit hard around that age.
On the other hand, since I've been in college, and especially grad school, my problems have been minimal. Not only am I female, but tattooed, pierced, and openly gay. No one cares. As far as the people in my research group are concerned, I'm qualified, and that's that.
There are sexist jerks working in science, but I think they are a shrinking minority. There is also of course the problem of "mommy-tracking" But the biggest problem is still lack of female applicants. Title IX cannot fix that, just screw with our funding and cast doubt on the women who made it here on our own.
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I do capoeira, a brazilian martial art. It is a good aerobic workout, and a great (the best, in my opinion) strength workout. Since the art puts a lot of emphasis on maneuvering in small spaces, I can practice on the floor of my lab when I need a break from coding. In my first year I went from being moderately overweight to looking like an athlete, it is really quite effective for getting in shape, because it works your body in every possible way.
I am a woman working on a PhD in robotics (EE). I think that this will never work, as by the time you reach college level, there are simply more men interested in science. I think that it is a societal issue, but it starts much younger, perhaps middle school. When I was in the public school system I was strongly discouraged by many teachers from entering a math field. Likewise, many smart women I know did well in math classes up until high school, when they mysteriously lost interest, or it "got hard", or something. I don't really buy that women are naturally uninterested, I think that pressure to conform starts to hit hard around that age. On the other hand, since I've been in college, and especially grad school, my problems have been minimal. Not only am I female, but tattooed, pierced, and openly gay. No one cares. As far as the people in my research group are concerned, I'm qualified, and that's that. There are sexist jerks working in science, but I think they are a shrinking minority. There is also of course the problem of "mommy-tracking" But the biggest problem is still lack of female applicants. Title IX cannot fix that, just screw with our funding and cast doubt on the women who made it here on our own.