
Hackathon“ and competition do *not* attract women to tech programs (NCSU c4l16) - DyslexicAtheist
https://twitter.com/erinrwhite/status/707956467224190976
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edmund_barton
Hackathons are competitions though. People compete to write the best code in
the shortest amount of time. If certain groups of people are uncomfortable
competing, then they miss out.

Should we do more to encourage women to compete? Seems reasonable enough. But
if the suggestion is we disallow competition completely, that I can't agree
with.

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orangea
"The suggestion" is that different ways of naming events produce different
gender ratios. This tweet isn't making any value judgments about competition.
It is directed at people who want to know how to make their events seem more
appealing to women.

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edmund_barton
But a Hackathon and a Workshop are two different things - one is a
competition, the other is not. Its not about making an event more appealing,
its basically saying you need to change the event.

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DyslexicAtheist
Guess it was all fun and games until we started using them to identify talent.

(although still better than having people demonstrate coding abilities on a
whiteboard).

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nitwit005
Lunch works if your metric is getting people to show up, but I'm sure I'm not
the only one who has attracted a large group with food, only to find they only
wanted the food.

