Other larger issues that were illuminated by the event include the following insights:

What women have to do is to educate themselves in math and science. Keynote speaker Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair (of Harvard), citing a study by the American Association of University Women called "How Girls Are Shortchanged in the Classroom," referred to the "feminization of poverty," and noted that "it is the women who complete eight years of math in high school and college that escape poverty and make money roughly equal to what men make."

Such education isn't going to be easy. The same study makes it clear that girls are discriminated against in the classroom and that pedagogy for math and science is oriented to boys and their learning styles. Further, one of the key ingredients in high-quality education, the experience of having a mentor, a teacher who becomes a role-model for the student and who directly shares his or her knowledge, doesn't happen across gender very often. Unfortunately, some of the legal pressures related to the drive for sexual equality make the professional mentor relationship between a young woman and an older man a little inadvisable, professionally and personally, for the man. Yet for professional training, such mentor-ships are central to the learning process. To date, there are few women mentors available. They are sorely needed.

Women also have to fiercely hang on to their "voice," their inner personal sense of who they are and what they want to do. This voice is often socialized out of girls during adolescence, putting them at a serious disadvantage at a time in their lives when they need to face and make some really important issues and decisions. Us men of course, face similar pressures and related dangers of losing our "voice," but at a later age, as a function of "making our deal" with employers, families, banks, etc. Also, we're at least allowed in to the economic system in return for "selling out."

The event made clear that we need to work on this at various levels, in the industry and beyond. One of the panelists, Isabel Carter Stewart, National Executive Director of Girls Incorporated, spoke about the potential effectiveness of a joint effort between that organization and AES, where individual AES sections would spend a meeting or hold a special workshop annually for girls involved with Girls Incorporated, to show them what our field is and the education they need to work in the field. Schools need to recruit women more actively. In the industry, we need to recognize and acknowledge that the gender imbalance exists, and take active steps to enable women to work successfully in the field. We have to let women have their voices, their anger, their successes and triumphs. We've got to accept them as our professional friends, colleagues and equals. The result will be a healthier, more productive and profitable industry, with more integrity and breadth of view. And it may even mean that us guys will be able to get along with women better. That would be great!

David Moulton is a recording engineer, writer and teacher in the Boston, Massachusetts area.