

Female coders, lighten up - willvarfar
http://www.redcode.nl/blog/2012/03/female-coders-lighten-up/

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willvarfar
[http://blog.jgc.org/2012/03/call-yourself-brogrammer-then-
ge...](http://blog.jgc.org/2012/03/call-yourself-brogrammer-then-get-
hell.html) is also relevant

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owenmarshall
That's a very inflammatory title for a non-controversial blogpost.

Let me ask a question that I've often wondered:

Many women believe that there are clearly serious problems within the
IT/programming industry that discourage their participation. _Why_ are male
programmers so quick to dismiss and minimize their concerns?

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s_kilk
I believe that in most cases the Male programmers have a hard time digesting
the "discouragement" angle because it simply clashes so hard with their own
experience of getting into the IT/Programming field.

A recurring theme in this debate is that women are discouraged from studying
CS, or perusing a career in Computing because of various discouraging factors;
maybe they were put off by the "geek" stereotype, or were convinced that
programming is a "boys job", etc, etc. This adds up to a sad situation where
young girls who would otherwise be excellent programmers are discouraged from
ever learning to code.

Now on the other hand, we have the male programmer, for whom it was all a
simple matter of "I like this, so I'll do more of it", which then snowballed
into a career. No blocking factors, no discouragement. So naturally the male
programmer in this example doesn't really understand what it's like to be
discouraged from IT/Programming and thus they are quick to dismiss and
minimize those concerns.

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phoobahr
Those of us who are, perhaps, a little older remember a time when 'getting
into' any sort of field the relied on a compiler generally came with a lot of
self study, little or no money, certainly no social status but an awful lot of
scorn. Before there was a 'revenge of the nerds' there was a state worth
seeking vengeance from.

It's not right, clever or productive but it's not hard to see how complaining
about the social hurdles, to an incumbent demographic who were largely
ostracized by same, isn't likely to engender much sympathy.

That being said barriers to entry should be lower for _everybody_.

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lomegor
I think the article is wrong in saying that the problem is caused by bullies
and aggressive people. (At least I understood that.) The problem is more
general than that and is hard grained on a lot of people and not only the ones
who feel superior to women or want to hurt others.

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Tim-Boss
It does sound like she needs to lighten up a bit though.... (JK!) ;)

Seriously, I'm starting to believe the reason that there's not more female
coders/developers has something to do with all the men that are already
there....

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Zikes
"Obviously there are a lot of jerks, assholes and plain rude people around.
Most of them are men, some are women."

Not a very good addition to the sexism discussion.

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mentat
Calling women girls doesn't make your case better...

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ghurlman
"Female coders lighten up" and "Female Coders, lighten up" have two very
different meanings, the latter being the actual headline.

~~~
willvarfar
thx fixed

