Live data from Hacker News

When Women Stopped Coding

npr.org

81–90 of 190 posts

Re: When Women Stopped Coding

#81
This seems like a feedback loop without a clear beginning or cause. Marketing affects behavior. Behavior affects marketing. Repeat.

Does Hasbro market GI Joes to boys because boys tend to like GI Joes or do boys like GI Joes because Hasbro markets them to boys?

I'm not so sure how useful wondering about finding the "Cause" of this. It isn't that simple.

Re: When Women Stopped Coding

#82
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>zero evidence presented, He posted some evidence. Not a lot, but some. More than his detractors here have posted so far. There's also more in that reddit thread, it looks like. I'm not saying he's right, but it does no one any favors to slam someone instead of refuting their argument.

He posted a link to an n-gram search, which is like me posting a picture of a flower to prove that the sky is blue. The data cited is not germane to the quesiton. To wit: one would expect that n-gram search to look the same whether or not data processing was a CS subdiscipline, because data processing dropped in relevance as digital systems became the primary source of truth. Therefore, it is not evidence either way…

Fair enough. But if we're trying to stay relevant to the argument, it would be best to avoid attacks on (perhaps questionable) character.

Re: When Women Stopped Coding

#83
post #45
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read the graph again. The dropoff for women is much larger. $ python >>> 20000.0 / 17000.0 1.1764705882352942 >>> 12500.0 / 7000.0 1.7857142857142858 CS enrollment for women in 1984 was 78% larger than in 1996; For men, it was 17%.

I'm not sure where you're picking these numbers off and from which graph. The graph I linked has the following values(ish): * Men: 27,500 - 17,500 -> 1.57 ~ 36% drop * Women: 15,000 - 7,500 -> 2 ~ 50% drop So yes, you're right that women did seem to drop off more but not as much as you say.

The graph you linked to. I'm comparing the 1984 numbers to latest available, since 1984 is what the linked piece talks about (and which I mentioned in the original comment)

> drop off was nearly identical for men

> women did seem to drop off more

These two statements cannot be both true at the same time.

Re: When Women Stopped Coding

#84

This story makes a compelling case that women stopped programming because - 1. Computers started being sold as consumer products - 2. They were marketed almost exclusively to boys - 3. Boys played with computers and learned about them, while girls were made to feel that computers weren't for them - 3. Men showed up to college with more computer experience - 4. Women felt they must not be "naturally good" at computers…

I find this explanation extremely hollow. Most programmers didn't start programming when they were kids. They started when they realized it was a good paycheck.

That you know about. The article shows a drop-off starting in the 1980s, which was when the home computer revolution happened. Computer games magazines at the time printed out programs for users to type in themselves, because for the first generation or two of hardware there wasn't a whole lot of software to buy. Also, pre-built home computers were heavily marketed for their education potential.

Re: When Women Stopped Coding

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I studied CS , only a small minority arrived with programming skills, a much larger number came with knowledge of gaming and by extension computer building because it was much easier to afford a PC required for the newest games if you could build it yourself.

Gaming has been a hell of a gateway drug for programming.

If I wanted to get involved with making games, it would probably be in order to design games. Not coding per se.

Re: When Women Stopped Coding

#86
post #80

This story makes a compelling case that women stopped programming because - 1. Computers started being sold as consumer products - 2. They were marketed almost exclusively to boys - 3. Boys played with computers and learned about them, while girls were made to feel that computers weren't for them - 3. Men showed up to college with more computer experience - 4. Women felt they must not be "naturally good" at computers…

"They were marketed almost exclusively to boys" Back before anyone was really marketing computers in any mainstream way, I remember gathering around the few that were available in the school library or in a math teacher's classroom. The only people interested EVER were boys. It had nothing to do with marketing.

Which came first, tool-toy companies interested in boys, or boys interested in them?

Re: When Women Stopped Coding

#87
I'm don't know that any real explanation is gonna be much more than speculation but it certainly is an interesting graph. I'm actually really surprised by the percentage of women in the physical sciences. I studied physics and sadly, I'm afraid that if you split out physics from the other branches it would be significantly lower than the other physical sciences. My own anecdotal experience (undergraduate and graduate school) would put it at 10%. But that is just two snapshots in time at two schools. I would guess the average HAS to be higher, but still below 40%.

Re: When Women Stopped Coding

#88
post #33
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The account that made that comment is a frequent poster in mens rights & friends subreddits, and probably should not be taken without a SUBSTANIAL grain of salt (particularly given the lack of any data to back it up)

Is that not ad hominem? Attack the content of his post, not the content of his character.

Yes, but logic errors have this wonderful property of no longer being relevant when we're knowingly doing them for a good cause. /s

Re: When Women Stopped Coding

#89

I am a female born in 1983 and have always been deeply interested in computers, but have nonetheless felt inexplicably out of place for it. I was in advanced math classes my entire life and placed out of calculus in college. I took a summer programming class at a different university in 2000 and fell in love with programming. But when I got back to school, I took another CS class that was exactly as described in this…

That's too bad. I wish things were easy for you, like they were for me, when my peers were cheering me on to learn how to program and I was super popular because of it. Everything was a cake walk, and I learned that if society is in the slightest way against what you are doing, it's impossible to accomplish, so I'm really glad I wasn't driven out of the field that interested me.

That's a pretty rude and condescending response. Feeling excluded from a particular culture is very different from expecting a task or learning a skill to be easy. Imagine trying to learn a new skill and finding that your peers & superiors in the field are hostile to you but friendly to each other. This is the experience many women report and I've witnessed it myself.

Re: When Women Stopped Coding

#90
post #14

This same graph used in the article was extensively discussed on reddit 3 days ago. [1] I want to quote some of the comments, which I think is extremely important to this discussion. " The far simpler answer is that the 1970's "explosion" of women into the (purported) field of "computer science" was largely women obtaining degrees in (what were then "computer science" courses) the subfields of "Data Processing" and l…

The views in that comment are completely unsubstantiated. There was no evidence presented that "data processing" was ever taught as part of or categorized as computer science. In fact, later comments debunk that viewpoint. Also worth noting that the person who wrote that subscribes to the Men Going Their Own Way movement [1] (his username is thrownaway_MGTOW), which while not an outright debunking of his claims, shou…

Regardless of the source of the comment, it would be interesting to have the source data to know exactly what they're classifying as "Computer Science" programs. That term has certainly increased in usage over the last several decades, and was not always in use in the decades prior to the 1980s.

So what did the study use in its place?

That's a valid question regardless of who raised it.

Post reply on HN