I am old enough to be the mother/grandmother of everyone here, I think. I lived in the Dark Ages.
First, I want say this: Halofirians are not "typical". Everyone here - as far as I can see - is an exceptional person. Everyone here is exceptional in character, and in achievement.
I'm not blowing smoke, as they say. It's true. Many of you here succeeded in spite of something. Gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, learning disabilities, poverty. Whatever. You are an amazing bunch and you do not for one second represent "average" anything.
When I was in elementary school, then as now girls were "better students". Boys were noisy and unruly: but nonetheless, school was
intended for boys. Even in the little grades (as we used to say), it was clear that it was nice and cute and all that girls could print neatly and liked to line up and have their hands and nails inspected. But boys were encouraged and tolerated in ways that girls simply weren't.
In high school it all became clear. I was a straight A student. I excelled particularly in math. But at the end of grade 9 all the girls were taken aside and it was suggested that most of us "would be happier" in "general math" unless - and it was a BIG unless - the girl was aiming for nursing or teaching. Even then, you were NOT required to have a math major. You could, and many did, go to nursing school or take teacher's training with no math major.
Some of us, though, kept on with math and science. At the beginning of grades 11 and 12 girls were once again encouraged to drop math and science majors in favour of "general courses". My math teacher always told us girls we woudn't need trig to fold diapers.
And we all laughed. Which makes me cringe.
So at some point I thought about going into Engineering. I loved the stuff. I had the marks. And UBC had then and has now an excellent engineering school. It wasn't going to happen. My parents couldn't afford to send me to UBC and there was almost zero chance I'd get a scholarship, they just didn't give that kind of scholarship to girls. I guess I could have worked my way through . . . but I doubt it.
And, to be perfectly honest, I didn't have the drive or fire to do it. I was "going steady". I knew I was going to marry this guy. I wasn't going to give that up to go and be an engineer and have to find a toilet on a worksite: that was the big drawback to women engineers! Where would you go to the bathroom?
But at the same time, even though I know I wimped out, the pressure AGAINST girls in school was enormous. You have no idea, if you didn't live through it.
It was worse in the office environment I worked in. Sexual discrimination in wages, and sexual harrassment all the time: I wasn't "special", it happened to every girl I knew in that place and that was actually a pretty good place to work, considering.
Now, we hear that it's all tilted in favour of girls. Well, I beg to differ.
The worst thing that's happening to girls now is the atrocious sexualization of girl children. I don't think there is a group of nasty old white men sitting in a tower somewhere arranging all this, but there might as well be.
Not all girls, not all the time. But it's a sickening sight, and it has the same effect as the discouragement I got as a girl. Millions of girls are learning to value themselves solely as sex objects. More than even when I was a girl, since it is much coarser and bolder.
Dig deeper.