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" We still raise girls to look to other people for assurance they are attractive and smart, while boys are raised to determine their own value. Many girls are still made to feel it's not feminine to be good at science or math. "

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" Figuring out why people who choose not to do something don't in fact do it is like attempting to interview the elves who live inside your refrigerator but come out only when the light is off. "

Eileen Pollack

People

Choose

Live

" When I left Yale, it was so painful to me. I had worked so hard, gotten so far, and just walked away. "

Eileen Pollack

Left

Hard

" I miss my former teachers, John Hersey and James Alan McPherson. I would love to see either or both and ask what I could do to improve, to deepen my writing. "

" The truth is, the less a subject had to do with the visible world, the more talented I was at solving problems. "

" As a physics major at Yale in the 1970s, I developed crushes on nearly all my male professors. "

" The most powerful determinant of whether a woman goes on in science might be whether anyone encourages her to go on. "

" I write and teach creative nonfiction. I was a reporter. "

" For the individual and for society, the more diversity you have in a field means more ways of solving a problem as well as more creativity and originality. "

" When you have different kinds of scientific and mathematical minds approaching problems, you will get more solutions. This leads to more innovation and more creative design. "

" Judging the political climate in my state by walking around lefty Ann Arbor is like a polar bear judging global warming by staring at the ice cube beneath its feet. "

" When parents ask why there are still so few girls in advanced science and math classes in high school, I tell them, because girls still need way more encouragement than boys to take those courses. "

" All the societal pressures that make girls feel as if they're too smart, especially in the sciences - 'No one will date them. They won't be popular.' - don't apply to boys. The boys are being encouraged. "

" Most applicants to creative writing programs submit stories about the angst of their suburban childhoods. "

" When I was in seventh grade, I was bored out of my mind. We seemed to be learning the same things over and over in science and math, and two of the boys in my class were allowed to move ahead into these advanced classes, but I wasn't allowed because I was a girl. "

" For women, even if she's nerdy enough to be Steve Jobs, she's undateable. "

" Knowing how to tactfully criticize someone's work is a mentor's job. "

" Many of my friends are scientists. "

" When I was growing up, I wanted passionately to be a physicist. "

Eileen Pollack

Growing

Wanted

" Parents don't want their kids to be nerdy. "

" Science and math are hard for everybody, and it's usually not a matter or being born gifted at it or not. It's hard work, but it can be a lot of fun! "

" I don't usually feel threatened by the militias. Most members are just indulging their fantasies of being warriors without having to sign up for the Army. They want to be heroes and save their neighbors from disaster. "

" In America, nobody's boyfriend wants them to be smarter than he is, and no one wants to admit it. "

" I was nearly as far behind in calculus as I was in physics. But I wasn't the only woman in the class, so I felt more comfortable asking questions. "

Eileen Pollack

Class

Physics

" My brother had been given a chemistry set for his bar mitzvah, but he wasn't interested in it. It was upstairs in the attic, and I would sneak up there and use it at great peril because I was afraid if he found out, he would get very angry at me, but he didn't seem to care. "

Eileen Pollack

Angry

Afraid

" To make computer science more attractive to women, we might help young women change how they think about themselves and what's expected of them. But we might also diversify the images of scientists they see in the media, along with the decor in the classrooms and offices in which they might want to study or work. "

" If you're a white male growing up in this society, you're constantly receiving encouragement to go on in science in the form of all the images that you're receiving. "

" Given that many girls are indoctrinated to believe that they should be feminine and modest about their abilities, as well as brought up to assume that girls are not innately gifted at science or math, it is not surprising that so few can see themselves as successful computer scientists. "

" My parents didn't know how to provide me with the encouragement I needed to achieve my dreams. "

" The world is a complex place. "

" If a person's self-worth derives from being the only woman in the field, how much affection can she feel toward another woman who might challenge that claim to fame? "