Re: Why the Widening Gender Gap in Computer Science?

["Lesley Binks" <lesley.binks@googlemail.com>]

2008/11/24 Brenda Wallace <brenda@wallace.net.nz>:
> On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 4:25 AM, Lesley Binks
> <lesley.binks@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>> or ... that task goes to the father...  (why is that option missing?
>>> it's far far more common than nannies, at least in my "society")
>>>
>> I didn't intend it to be missing and to top it all, iirc, my cousin
>> was a house-husband for a while some years ago.
>> Last time I spoke with him he was still at Intel.  I have no idea if
>> he was able to take a career break nor how he managed his career over
>> that break.
>
> WOW. I haven't heard the phrase "house husband" since the 80s.
> It's accepted here that both parents do the child raising. i can think
> of examples of women who do fulltime mothering, but i can think of
> just as many fulltime fathers.
>
> So, your description is of the situation in the UK?

My cousin is in the US.  I am in the UK.
Other than my cousin, I have never met any men taking the
responsibility of raising children on a full time basis.
I've known men who 'do their bit' or at least perceive they 'do their
bit', or sometimes more to the point, make  lot of noise about 'doing
their bit' ;)
but I haven't met any men outside my family that have been
house-husbands, child rearers or in any way totally reponsible for the
succesful running of the household and family unit
on their own while the wife/female partner pursues a successful career.

Even the person I knew that had a nanny was the one seen sorting out
the children and bringing them into work with her
when they were old enough and staffing arrangements had fallen
through.  I don't know what happened when they were too young to come
in.

Having been part of the applied maths/mathematical physics/electrical
engineering brigade rather than straight Comp-Sci I think I have met
more successful women than
house-husbands but even there I've known women who have switched
disciplines e.g. into stats mostly because of the male bias in the
working environment.


Regards

Lesley