LadyCoders 2012 -- a Kickstarter project to help more women in software
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Re: LadyCoders 2012 -- a Kickstarter project to help more women in software
#2The two things I like about this project are
1. It's specific. They're not over-promising with a really cool video. They already have a plan and know the costs in considerable detail.
I see an awful lot of Kickstarter projects which are basically link bait getting heavily funded, then discovering that they had no idea how hard Shiny Thing X would actually turn out to be.
2. We all know that our industry's ratios are unhealthy, and it's a self-sustaining loop. It's starving the industry of talent and leads to an insular, narrow culture that's frankly holding us back from being taken more seriously as a profession.
While this project won't wave the magic wand on the whole industry and deliver rainbows and puppies, it identifies a particular high-leverage point that can be improved almost immediately.
I think this is one of the better kickstarter projects I've seen in a while.
Re: LadyCoders 2012 -- a Kickstarter project to help more women in software
#3Sigh… if women wanted to be developers they would become developers.
Almost all the successful developers I know started creating software (or at least wanted to make computers do things that they weren't immediately able to do) at a young age. Even you believe it is an issue (and I don't know why it is necessary that 50% of all developers need to be women), this isn't a problem you can fix by talking to a bunch of adults about how to get a career in IT.
Now, part of a lack of women in IT could have to do with gender stereotyping at a young age, but I do not believe that IT is generally negative towards women any more than HR/marketing is negative towards men.
PRO TIP: If you are told you're a crap developer, it's not because you're a woman, it's because you're a crap developer. If you think you deserve some type of different treatment because of your genitalia, you're part of the problem.
Re: LadyCoders 2012 -- a Kickstarter project to help more women in software
#4Sigh… if women wanted to be developers they would become developers. Almost all the successful developers I know started creating software (or at least wanted to make computers do things that they weren't immediately able to do) at a young age. Even you believe it is an issue (and I don't know why it is necessary that 50% of all developers need to be women), this isn't a problem you can fix by talking to a bunch of a…
Disclaimer: I'm one of the people on this project.
The point of this project is not to convince women to go into tech, that is completely out of scope. The point is to help women that are qualified but don't interview well or know how to deal with some of the issues unique to women that either raise eyebrows or can cause confusion in an interview.
The women we're targeting include recent graduates, those who left the field for a few months or years to have babies or take care of sick family members, and women who may have been driven out of other positions by sexual harassment (nobody wants a troublemaker, and they do always ask why you left your previous position).
Re: LadyCoders 2012 -- a Kickstarter project to help more women in software
#5Sigh… if women wanted to be developers they would become developers. Almost all the successful developers I know started creating software (or at least wanted to make computers do things that they weren't immediately able to do) at a young age. Even you believe it is an issue (and I don't know why it is necessary that 50% of all developers need to be women), this isn't a problem you can fix by talking to a bunch of a…
Disclaimer: I'm one of the people on this project. The point of this project is not to convince women to go into tech, that is completely out of scope. The point is to help women that are qualified but don't interview well or know how to deal with some of the issues unique to women that either raise eyebrows or can cause confusion in an interview. The women we're targeting include recent graduates, those who left the…
The trouble is, none of this (with the exception of childbirth, and there are plenty of stay-at-home Dads) is gender-specific.
Unfortunately, all continuing to enforce how special women are (either positively or negatively, in this case) is to keep women thinking they need specialised tools to succeed.
As a man, no one taught me how to interview well, or come back to the workforce after taking an extended break to care for someone else, or to be driven out of a position due to bullying (much more common than sexual harassment because it is much subtler). Why do you feel the need to single-out women for such general issues?
Re: LadyCoders 2012 -- a Kickstarter project to help more women in software
#6Sigh… if women wanted to be developers they would become developers. Almost all the successful developers I know started creating software (or at least wanted to make computers do things that they weren't immediately able to do) at a young age. Even you believe it is an issue (and I don't know why it is necessary that 50% of all developers need to be women), this isn't a problem you can fix by talking to a bunch of a…
Disclaimer: I'm one of the people on this project. The point of this project is not to convince women to go into tech, that is completely out of scope. The point is to help women that are qualified but don't interview well or know how to deal with some of the issues unique to women that either raise eyebrows or can cause confusion in an interview. The women we're targeting include recent graduates, those who left the…
As kondro said, you should definitely consider aiming such a project at all genders. Of course you need a selling point and if that's "getting more women into tech" then so be it, but your project could provide huge value to both women and men. From your description it sounds great.
Re: LadyCoders 2012 -- a Kickstarter project to help more women in software
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
Disclaimer: I'm one of the people on this project. The point of this project is not to convince women to go into tech, that is completely out of scope. The point is to help women that are qualified but don't interview well or know how to deal with some of the issues unique to women that either raise eyebrows or can cause confusion in an interview. The women we're targeting include recent graduates, those who left the…
The trouble is, none of this (with the exception of childbirth, and there are plenty of stay-at-home Dads) is gender-specific. Unfortunately, all continuing to enforce how special women are (either positively or negatively, in this case) is to keep women thinking they need specialised tools to succeed. As a man, no one taught me how to interview well, or come back to the workforce after taking an extended break to ca…
1) First, I am speaking from an assumption I hold that hiring people to work for you of all stripes, which means moving beyond the cis-white-males that are more common, leads to better teams, better products and better execution.
2) I usually think about non-standard channels for hiring, or assistance/boosting programs such as this focused on women (as one example of minorities in the tech field) because almost all of industry is subtly or not so subtly biased towards the majority. The ways you relax with coworkers, the non-programming personal attributes that are assessed in interviews, the similarity bias interviewers have to pick people like themselves. These are not intentional acts of sexism, but are nonetheless prevalent.
Re: LadyCoders 2012 -- a Kickstarter project to help more women in software
#8Sigh… if women wanted to be developers they would become developers. Almost all the successful developers I know started creating software (or at least wanted to make computers do things that they weren't immediately able to do) at a young age. Even you believe it is an issue (and I don't know why it is necessary that 50% of all developers need to be women), this isn't a problem you can fix by talking to a bunch of a…
I couldn't agree more. I had this discussion with several people during Djangocon EU, where we had several talks at the conference about women in the community.
People doesn't care about gender, they care about good code.
Re: LadyCoders 2012 -- a Kickstarter project to help more women in software
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Disclaimer: I'm one of the people on this project. The point of this project is not to convince women to go into tech, that is completely out of scope. The point is to help women that are qualified but don't interview well or know how to deal with some of the issues unique to women that either raise eyebrows or can cause confusion in an interview. The women we're targeting include recent graduates, those who left the…
The trouble is, none of this (with the exception of childbirth, and there are plenty of stay-at-home Dads) is gender-specific. Unfortunately, all continuing to enforce how special women are (either positively or negatively, in this case) is to keep women thinking they need specialised tools to succeed. As a man, no one taught me how to interview well, or come back to the workforce after taking an extended break to ca…
Women and men are raised differently. Things that come natural to you, having been raised male, do not come naturally to a large number of women. Examples include how to make eye contact in an interview and how to shake hands properly. It is very common for women to be raised with an attitude of quietly waiting to be noticed, rather than pointing out their good traits and skills. This can leave them a bit lost when it comes to an interview, which is essentially the time to brag.
Aside from childbirth itself, women are far more likely to be single parents than men are, and are normally the ones to stay home with sick children, especially when there is a long-term disease involved.
Many women end up dealing with multiple name changes, across degrees and sometimes projects.
Of course not all women lack these skills, we would never pretend that to be the case. But the ones that do are at a distinct disadvantage, and there are more of them out there than you realize.
Who would you turn to if you didn't even know that your handshake felt like a dead fish and you never once made eye contact with the hiring manager? That kind of feedback doesn't exist after interviews.
Re: LadyCoders 2012 -- a Kickstarter project to help more women in software
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Disclaimer: I'm one of the people on this project. The point of this project is not to convince women to go into tech, that is completely out of scope. The point is to help women that are qualified but don't interview well or know how to deal with some of the issues unique to women that either raise eyebrows or can cause confusion in an interview. The women we're targeting include recent graduates, those who left the…
As kondro said, you should definitely consider aiming such a project at all genders. Of course you need a selling point and if that's "getting more women into tech" then so be it, but your project could provide huge value to both women and men. From your description it sounds great.
We will not turn men away, and they are of course welcome to the information that we're going to put out.
We chose women because that's what we are and because we wanted to target some of the issues specific to women. A LOT of the information we will be putting out will apply to both genders.