Some professors rarely encourage or praise their students, but such
encouragement, even if just a few spoken words, is greatly appreciated
and rarely forgotten [Widnall 1988, page 1743,]. For example,
suggesting that a student consider graduate school can make a
substantial difference [Leveson 1989, page 23,]. In one survey of female scientists, ``[t]he
encouragement of teachers --- along with that of fathers --- was the
influence most frequently quoted as steering [them] towards science''
[Ferry et al 1982, page 27,]. In practice, women often do not get encouragement from teachers and
guidance counselors ([Cooper Union 1989] in [Baum 1990, page
48,]). While encouragement should be directed to worthy males
and females, it has greatest effect with people who receive little
encouragement and who have low self-esteem, often women [Zappert et al 1984, page
8,]. (See, for example, page 
of this report.)
Additionally, it is important for parents to encourage their daughters
as well as their sons in technical areas. ``According to one computer
camp director, `Mothers bring their boys to the classes. Girls have
to beg to enroll''' [Hess et al 1985, page 201,]. Even if parents do
treat their children equally, it is impossible to make girls feel that
it's as normal for girls to use computers as it is for boys, with all
the biases in our society (Section ) and in children's
toys and computer games (Section ). Nevertheless, it is
clearly important to encourage one's daughters, and many female
computer scientists attribute their career choice and success to
parents who encouraged them.