

The Rise of the Feminist Hackers: Inevitable or Unlikely? - unpuns
https://medium.com/hacker-culture/f0e410ffb760

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caitp
Myself and plenty of other women are absolutely involved in technology (and
loving it).

But, is software development really "power"? Is it really "changing the
world"? Is it really all that meaningful? This is where I start to get a bit
skeptical. If we are changing the world, we certainly aren't necessarily
changing the world for the better. We are not eradicating poverty, disease, or
violence and abuse by writing software.

Maybe people who are looking to change the world are looking to do that in
more meaningful ways, where they can actually have a real impact on real
peoples lives.

Maybe there are other, more cultural reasons why the field isn't entirely
flooded with women. Maybe we aren't encouraging young girls to be curious.
Maybe we aren't glamourizing it with TV and movies.

Maybe it's a lot of things, and maybe a lot of things have to change before
this becomes something that your average 9 year old girl will want to take on.

In the mean time, lets not pretend that women aren't changing the world in
important ways already. We can do better, but don't be dismissive of women who
have decided to go into medicine, or city planning, or agriculture, or
astronomy, or law, or architecture, or writing, or academia. They're changing
the world too, and most likely in much more meaningful and valuable ways than
we are in tech.

~~~
unpuns
> Maybe it's a lot of things, and maybe a lot of things have to change before
> this becomes something that your average 9 year old girl will want to take
> on.

It has to start somewhere. That's why this post was aimed at (self-professed)
feminists who are maybe trying in other ways (and feeling defeated). Learn to
program. It will likely help you immensely in doing the other things that can
amplify your intention into the world like make a website or an app.

The bottom line is this is an issue of communication.

I did not mean to be dismissive of women working on other trades. A lot of the
post is tongue-and-cheek. Rather, the intention was sort of a pragmatic
roadmap: this is the best way. The most bang for your buck. Just like learning
to read at one point was.

And don't get me wrong: I am not trying to glamorize programming beyond what
is necessary, but to a certain extent it's power to those who maybe need it. I
think it is changing the world. Working in the industry it's easy to become
acclimatized, but there is a lot of good going on in the world.

Bitcoin just revolutionized money for a lot of nations that are really
struggling with monetary issues. Something needed for a while. Lot's of things
are happening, and there is virtually no shortage of help needed in the tech
field.

------
sitkack
I am feminist and have been coding since I was 16 for money.

Feminism is humanism.

