

You Can’t Be What You Can’t See: How to Get More Women in Tech - acav
http://www.thedailymuse.com/tech/you-cant-be-what-you-cant-see-how-to-get-more-women-in-tech/

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dlikhten
"Even people who don’t know what a computer scientist actually does would
recognize the quintessential stereotype of one: a pale, sweaty Star Wars fan
hacking into the Pentagon from his gadget-filled basement.

Indeed, “hacker” culture is frequently described as overrun with techie boys
who care only about computers—not a place for extroverted girls with passions
ranging from healthcare to education to business to fashion."

WHAT THE FUCK? I don't know a SINGLE pale, sweaty, overweight programmer (ok
fine this 50 year old I know has a bit of extra weight on him). And 80% of
programmers I met are HIGHLY social. And 80% of programmers I know are engaged
in tons of sports and physical activities, and enjoy them quite a bit, much
more than most people go to the gym. In fact most people fitting those
categories are in the bad programmer category. Smart people care not just for
their minds, but their body and happiness. The description above is a world of
warcraft player.

If I was to describe a programmer stereotype it would be:

"Usually a physically fit person, who frequently cares more about self-
improvement and enjoys an intellectually stimulating discussion regardless of
topic."

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pselle
That's from your perspective inside the industry, to be fair.

However, it does annoy me when articles make broad, sweeping cultural
generalizations without any support.

~~~
dlikhten
Well said good sir. I want a developer writing this stuff. The "Lighten Up" is
a post I can respect, as it points out a REAL problem, not a media hyped one
that we read about every other day.

The writer of this article seems to be a developer or at least is trying to
present herself as one.

"Media depictions of computer scientists only serve to further alienate women
from the profession. When I watched Revenge of the Nerds as a child, it was
hard to relate to a nearly all-male cast.

Turns out, I’m not alone."

Also I worked in laid back, and corporate environments, and my observation
stands for every place I worked at. The more laid back the more fit and lively
and sociable the people are.

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oakenshield
Marissa Mayer is hardly the best role model out there for computer scientists,
in the classical sense of the word "scientist". There's a very clear
distinction between programmer, hacker, and scientist which the author may not
be aware of (or has completely forgot to mention).

IMO, role models for female computer scientists would be Grace Hopper [1], in
whose name there is now a scholarship for graduate students, or someone like
Barbara Liskov [2], who won the Turing award recently. Though perhaps less
popular than Marissa Mayer, I feel these are the role models that should be
better known among young women about to choose a career path.

/pedantry

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_hopper> [2]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Liskov>

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roguecoder
It can't be just about making women more visible. The girl scouts did a study
and the most common reason high school girls didn't want to study STEM fields
was because they'd have to work harder than men to be taken seriously. Seeing
other women can help, but even more helpful would be seeing men take those
women seriously and publicize their work day-to-day, instead of just when
trying to encourage girls to consider their field.

Right now, young girls may be accurate in assuming that entering the field
will suck more for them than their male friends. It's not like there aren't
plenty of alternatives: digital archiving and computational biology, for
example, are non-male-dominated programs coding-inclined women can pursue
instead.

If we want rational people to join our field, it has to be the best choice out
there.

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cantastoria
Has there been any study showing that fields that went from being dominated by
one sex to having a more balanced ratio benefited in any significant way. No
seriously...

For instance, has there been an explosion of new ideas and research in the
legal or medical fields since women started being more prominent in those
fields that could have only come from women? The underlying belief in these
types articles seems to be that women have a lot to offer the tech industry
_just by virtue of them being women_.

~~~
jlvarner
While not at an industry level, which I agree would be interesting analysis.
There is some research indicating at the group level, in general, women do
have a beneficial influence:
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100930143339.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100930143339.htm)

But I think there are two aspects of including more women, or any other
underrepresented group, in tech. One is what you mentioned in regard to
pushing the state of the art, but the other is providing service to different
sectors of the population.

If the primary thing you need as an entrepreneur is to understand the needs
and wants of your audience, there's only so far I can go before it's at best a
purely intellectual understanding. Same thing with small startups, if they are
growing out of scratching my own itch, the lack of women means needs specific
to them are much less likely to be addressed.

