2DkcTXceO

76 Accidental biostatistics professor7.3 Thwarted employment search after collegeHaving discarded high school and college teaching, actuarial science, andmedicine, I sought employment after college graduation in 1960. I was awareof only two methods to find a job: look in the newspapers’ “Help Wanted”sections and talk with employers at job fairs on campus.The newspaper route proved fruitless. Younger readers may not be awarethat newspapers had separate “Help Wanted Female” and “Help WantedMale” sections until the late 1960s or early 1970s when such practice eventuallywas ruled to be illegal sex discrimination. In 1960 advertised positionsusing math skills and interest were in “Help Wanted Male,” and I assumedthat it would be futile to apply. Job interviews on campus with employersplayed out similarly; all positions were segregated by gender and all technicalpositions were for males. One vignette, among many, illustrates the employmentculture for women in the US in 1960.When I registered for an interview on campus with IBM, I was required totake a math aptitude test. The IBM interviewer commented that he had neverseen such a high score from any applicant and offered me either a secretarialor an entry sales position. I countered that I was interested in their advertisedtechnical positions that required a math background, especially given my scoreon their math aptitude test, but he simply said that those positions were formales. End of conversation.7.4 Graduate school as a fallback optionAlthough it is hard for me to believe now, I did not view my failed employmentsearch in 1960 to be the result of systematic societal sex discrimination againstwomen in employment. Rather, I concluded that if I were more qualified,I would be hired even though I was female.Thus, I decided to pursue a Master’s degree in statistics. Looking back,my search for graduate schools seems naive. I scanned available college catalogsat the Gettysburg College library, identified schools that had a separatestatistics department, and applied to three that somehow appealed to me. Allthree accepted me and offered financial aid: University of Chicago, ColumbiaUniversity, and Purdue University. I chose Purdue because it was the leastexpensive for me after credit from financial aid.