tin### [at] tezcatcom wrote:
> 
> >There was a program on TV a few weeks ago that talked about differences
> >between male and female brain functions... (yeah, interesting eh? ;)... but
> >one thing it did appear to show (from medical and experimental data) was
> >that the majority of women find it considerably harder to visualise 3D
> >images/objects/space than men.
> 
> Odd, in light of the fact that I was taught that women were better at
> spatial relations than men. Of course, they seem to routinely change
> their findings on this topic...

I have heard the same as you concerning spatial relations.

> 
> But POV-Ray is the intersection of two geek (not a perjorative) fields:
> computing in general, and specifically math. Women are underrepresented
> in computing and math (and engineering and hard sciences in general)
> mostly for social reasons, IMO; there's still the perception that somehow
> these fields are ones women are not suited for, and a lot of times women
> spend so much time being not taken seriously even when they /are/ good in
> these fields that they just stop participating in them.  This is based
> primarily on personal and purely anecdotal experience, of course, but
> overall the general consensus among my female geek friends (and even some
> of the male ones) is that people see a resume' with a female name and
> computing experience and think 'overglorified secretary'... in the face
> of that, it's easy to get discouraged. In other words, we have a hard
> time being taken seriously. Pretty much everyone I know locally doing
> computing for a living agrees that this is a widespread problem of
> perception. If you're female /and/ you're self-taught, getting a job is
> extremely difficult. If you can /get/ to the interview stage... well,
> that works better. Hell, even in web design, which is not precisely a
> highly technical field, men seem to get taken more seriously than women.
> 
> Er... pardon my soap box. I'll just put that back away now.

A topic for another day :)

> 
> Anyhow, I'm female, and I'm into POV-Ray. Admittedly, I'm not all that
> good at it yet, but that's a matter of practice... I like it not just
> because it's cool to be able to do 3D stuff but also because the computer
> draws better than I do. :)

  That was my attraction to the program. I can't draw decent stick
men with a pencil but with Pov-Ray my artistic skills, be they what
they are, have found an avenue of expression. Something I never would
have thought possible a few short years ago. Such is the reason that
I would have thought more women too would enjoy the art. Maybe they
do but are just under represented in the newgroups.

-- 
Ken Tyler

tyl### [at] pacbellnet

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