

Debugging the problem of women in tech - janineyoong
http://www.women2.com/debugging-the-problem-of-women-in-tech/

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SeoxyS
Warning: sweeping generalizations to follow.

Most people who end up being programmers are nerds. Nerds who, in their teens,
spent time playing with computers instead of partying with friends and
crowning the high school social pyramid.

There are many more outright nerdy high school guys than there are girls, and
the nerd boys are more likely to turn to computers.

What makes someone become a nerd? Probably a combination of social aptitude
and physical attractiveness in the early teens. It doesn't help that girls
reach puberty much earlier than boys do. Combined with the fact that girls are
easier on the eyes than boys, and that they tend to be a little more socially
adept, probably leads to there being more boys than girls who have
difficulties in middle and high school, and end up falling back on computers.

Lastly, the nerd guys tend to occupy themselves with things more technical
than girls, for the same reason boys play with transformers action figures,
while girls play with barbie dolls.

\--

PS: I'm no PhD in social studies, this is all conjecture and probably wrong.

~~~
Niten
Likewise, I'll defer to anyone who can present hard data to the contrary, but
my intuition is that you're spot on here.

I've always been a geek. When I was 12 my father's coworker gave me a BASIC
compiler, and I would stay inside working through introductory programming
tutorials while my equally intelligent sister spent her free time with her
friends. As a result, by the time I graduated high school I already had
significant experience programming in BASIC, C, C++, Perl, JavaScript, and Z80
assembly language (TI-86 graphing calculators).

Now when I got to college I still had plenty to learn about the theoretical
underpinnings of computer science, but one thing I noticed right away was that
my six-year, passionate head start on programming gave me a massive advantage
over many of my peers. The ones who lacked this advantage eventually switched
majors; the ones who had it stayed... and were invariably male.

I propose that the phenomenon of so many kids entering computer science and
engineering programs with years of self-taught experience under their belts
has unconsciously shaped these programs to the point that they are unfriendly
to anyone trying to start programming from scratch. And maybe that in itself
isn't a bad thing; if CS programs can assume a certain level of experience
from new students, then perhaps they can produce graduates with an even higher
level of education. Generally speaking it's not gender discrimination we see
in these programs, it's experience discrimination.

If we're to go searching for the cause of the gender gap in software
engineering, I think we need to stop trying to assign blame to phantasms of
gender discrimination in higher education – or worse, trying to just shoehorn
more young women into a career path for which they are not necessarily
prepared. Instead, we need to look at the social factors that lead so many
more boys than girls to engage programming at a young age, and discuss what
might be done about that.

------
RandallBrown
"The fact that computer science is ill-suited in preparing new engineers to
enter the workforce"

You can argue that colleges aren't preparing students all you want, but it's
definitely not a FACT. I was very well prepared to enter the workforce after
school, as were many of my friends. I've met plenty of recent college grads
that absolutely had the skills necessary to be successful developers at my
former and current job. I personally think that the university level is the
place that we can start solving this problem.

The problem of women in tech is a social problem. As long as there is a major
imbalance, it will make women uncomfortable. Things can absolutely be done to
make this environment better for women, but it also is going to take some
strong women to really stand up and deal with it to start balancing the
scales.

~~~
WalterSear
The place for this rebalancing is middle school. By college, as we have seen,
it is far, far too late.

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jack-r-abbit
_At the college level, some universities have instituted a policy of having a
50% ratio of women to men entering computer science, but high attrition brings
the number down between 10 and 20% for graduates._

And this is why "quotas" are complete and total crap. If a school has 1000
openings for their CS program and the policy says the 500 should be women and
then half of them drop out that is 250 spots that could have gone to someone
else. Quotas do not allow for the most qualified/capable people to get the
spots. It is a shame that these policies keep going on. I understand they were
designed to combat discrimination but they just traded one bias for another.

------
SeoxyS
The expression Women 2.0 always makes me wonder... what was wrong with the
first version of women?

</joke>

