
Why PyLadies? - craigkerstiens
http://www.chesnok.com/daily/2013/02/23/why-pyladies/
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etanol
This kind of gender segregation makes me sad. So many years fighting for women
to have the same rights as men, and now it turns out that IT, the youngest
technology of all, suffers from gender discrimination. Thus motivating the
creation of these kind of groups.

It's kind of embarrassing.

~~~
shanelja
I'm actually being placed on the other side of the fence here, I don't have a
clue what "gender discrimination" looks like in the broader tech world, all I
know is that in my company, the techies are equal in numbers, male and female
(thought not of course by design.)

I find it sad that I often see a great group of people and a group which I
would absolutely love being able to join, but that it is exclusively for
women, is this really how we want to solve a perceived gender discrimination?
By creating another one which leans the other way?

So often politics of gender, race, sexuality, etc. seems to over shadow what
these groups should really be about, which is bringing people together to
learn and have fun experiences. Men and women can have these fun experiences
together, we don't need to invite purely men or women, imagine the backlash if
"blokes who code" had a male only tech group.

It's very easy to play the "under-represented" card, but the fact of the
matter is this: women in the U.S. ever so slightly out number men. There is
absolutely nothing stopping women joining in with the tech industry, there is
no law, no patriarchy standing in their way, the only thing stopping a woman
from joining the tech industry is herself.

~~~
selenamarie
> I don't have a clue what "gender discrimination" looks like in the broader
> tech world

Here's some reading that might help you get started with educating yourself:

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2012/mar/22/techno...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2012/mar/22/technology-women-sexism-question)

* [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/business/global/measures-p...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/business/global/measures-promoting-women-in-business-are-working-reding-says.html)

~~~
kmfrk
This wiki of gender incidents in tech is my go-to link:
<http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_incidents>.

~~~
angersock
Interesting read, but some of the articles seem to be hearasy (no sources
listed beyond "so and so seems to remember"). Additionally, some of it seems
pretty hairtrigger stuff--body image triggering?

Thanks for the link regardless.

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ninetax
Thanks for your hard work. I've heard lots of great things about PyLadies. If
my friend wasn't graduating in the spring I would try to convince her to
organize a student PyLadies group.

See you at PyCon!

~~~
selenamarie
Thanks!!

It would be so cool to have campus groups. I'll bring that up to the other
organizers. There are a handful of students who already come to the Portland
group. We should figure out some ways of capturing the imagination of more
students.

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kmfrk
Another interesting group is @wwdcgirls for any women who plan on attending
Apple's next event.

Please ditch the text-shadow. The text is completely illegible to me, and I
can't highlight the text to read the inverted colour scheme due to the text
shadow making it look all smugded. :)

Thanks for all your contributions to women in tech and the Python community.

~~~
selenamarie
:) I removed it, increased the font size and purged the cache.

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dmg8
Are transgendered women allowed in PyLadies? Do you need to be post-op?

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selenamarie
Thanks for the question.

I will bring this up with all PyLadies - but for my part, yes! We don't have a
global charter, so I will seek clarification on this and express my opinion.

The wording that I have tried to use is "primarily woman-identified" or "not
primarily male-identified". If you have better wording suggestions, please
share!

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dreen
Please use a web-friendly font. Plus, I don't know if using so much pink is a
good idea. But then again, I'm not a designer. Or a woman.

Otherwise, keep up the good work!

~~~
selenamarie
Are you talking about the PyLadies site itself? I'm not a color expert, but it
seems to be mostly red and white.

My site's theme is predominantly blue. I hadn't really thought about my color
choices until just now.

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nickpresta
There seems to be some escaped HTML in your header text:
<http://i.imgur.com/RG5bBDp.png>

~~~
selenamarie
Fixed! Thanks.

