Another book of cartoons, this time illustrating some of the things (famous) men have said about women. When I was reading about Ada Lovelace I found it quite appalling that in her days men thought women were too mentally fragile to cope with mathematics or science.
In this book, Jackie Fleming ridicules that kind of thinking, sometimes by repeating what people like Darwin said -- she continually refers to Darwin and others as ‘geniuses’, and it becomes quite obvious fairly quickly that she does not quite regard them as geniuses when it comes to their ‘scientific’ conclusions about women. (The constant references to ‘genius’ are similar to Marc Anthony’s speech in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, in which he keeps referring to Brutus et al as ‘honourable men’.)
At other times, the cartoons and statements are silly, but no more so than the attitudes being ridiculed. For example, studying too much made women’s hair fall out.
A good corrective to some of the daft things men have said about women (and still do).
You can buy the book here: The trouble with women (Amazon affiliate link).
This review was first published in the Digital Education newsletter.
In 1994 I set out with my wife to discover the best place to buy a computer system -- and discovered a lot of sexism along the way.
You would hardly believe the ridiculous things that 'genius' men have said about women's capabilities. I can't help thinking that if Ada Lovelace had been a man we'd have had computers at least one generation before we did. Anyway, here are my views on a book that deals with the issue.
Are girls and women biologically predetermined to not be natural programmers? No, I don't think so either. This article contains some interesting points based on recent discussions, and links to (hopefully) useful articles.
In 1994 I set out with my wife to discover the best place to buy a computer system -- and discovered a lot of sexism along the way.
Young people love to use technology. In school, we jump at the opportunity to use the iPads for research, or to use laptops for typing up essays or creating PowerPoints in class. In my school, when an iPad trolley is dragged into the classroom at the start of a lesson, there is always a race between the students to the front of the classroom, desperate not to have to share it with others, or be stuck with a tablet with a 10% battery life remaining.