[Quote]
"Why, Kira," asked Irina, "aren't you interested in the subject of this discussion?"
"I am," Kira answered calmly, "but I think the discussion is superfluous. I am going to the Technological Institute."
"Kira!"
There were seven startled voices and they all uttered one name. Then Galina Petrovna said: "Well, with a daughter like this even her own mother isn't let in on her secrets!"
"When did you decide that?" Lydia gasped.
"About eight years ago," said Kira.
"But Kira! What will you do?" Maria Petrovna gasped.
"I'll be an engineer."
"Frankly," said Victor, annoyed, "I do not believe that engineering is a profession for women."
"Kira," Alexander Dimitrievitch said timidly, "you've never liked the Communists and here you select such a favorite profession of theirs--a woman engineer!"
"Are you going to build for the Red State?" asked Victor.
"I'm going to build because I want to build."
"But Kira!" Lydia stared at her, bewildered. "That will mean dirt, and iron, and rust, and blow-torches, and filthy, sweaty men and no feminine company to help you."
"That's why I like it."
"It is not at all a cultured profession for a woman," said Galina Petrovna.
"It's the only profession," said Kira, "for which I don't have to learn lies. Steel is steel. Most of the other sciences are someone's guess, and someone's wish, and many people's lies."
[Unquote, emphasis mine.]
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