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Software Developers’ Growing Elitism Problem

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Re: Software Developers’ Growing Elitism Problem

#3

> According to a recent study by Course Report, 36 percent of academy attendees are female, and women who graduate from academies actually earn higher average salaries than men. Can we please put to rest that women can't make it in this industry?

Women != distinct subset of women who have the opportunity and resources to enroll in expensive bootcamps.

Re: Software Developers’ Growing Elitism Problem

#4
post #3

> According to a recent study by Course Report, 36 percent of academy attendees are female, and women who graduate from academies actually earn higher average salaries than men. Can we please put to rest that women can't make it in this industry?

Women != distinct subset of women who have the opportunity and resources to enroll in expensive bootcamps.

Wouldn't that argument also apply to men?

Re: Software Developers’ Growing Elitism Problem

#7
post #3

> According to a recent study by Course Report, 36 percent of academy attendees are female, and women who graduate from academies actually earn higher average salaries than men. Can we please put to rest that women can't make it in this industry?

Women != distinct subset of women who have the opportunity and resources to enroll in expensive bootcamps.

Unfortunately, that's not what you hear/read/see when you follow any gender activist in tech.

Re: Software Developers’ Growing Elitism Problem

#8
post #5

> We should not stratify construction workers into classes. Of course. Any crane operator can be easily swapped for a forklift driver. When the latter are in shortage too, replace them with the bricklayers.

Your analogy is a good one for types of programmers - that disciplines of construction/software worker are not interchangeable (though lots of crane drivers can also drive a forklift).

It misses the point of the article though. The article is tired of people saying "forklift driver's aren't real construction workers"... which sounds pretty silly. I think very few of us drive past a construction zone and question the validity of who's on site. But we do it in tech all the time.

People and skills aren't interchangeable 1:1. Some jobs require far more ability than others. Still - if you're in the field, you're one of us.

Re: Software Developers’ Growing Elitism Problem

#9

> According to a recent study by Course Report, 36 percent of academy attendees are female, and women who graduate from academies actually earn higher average salaries than men. Can we please put to rest that women can't make it in this industry?

The number of women in the software industry when they join it might be roughly equal to the number of men, and their salaries might well be higher, but after a few years a lot of the women have left. That's the problem. The industry is set up in a way that isn't inclusive, doesn't treat people equally, and in a lot of cases is actively anti-women because hiring practises don't deal with things like pregnancy well enough. Looking at people who're entering the industry is interesting, but looking at people who've been there for 5, 10 or 20 years is more interesting.

Something to note about the average salary - the fact women are paid more is probably a function of them being hired by more progressive and successful companies that pay more. I doubt they're being paid more because they're better - developer quality isn't related to gender as far as I know. Ideally if women had an equal chance of being hired across the industry, including the poorer companies with rubbish wages, then the average pay would be the same.

Re: Software Developers’ Growing Elitism Problem

#10

> According to a recent study by Course Report, 36 percent of academy attendees are female, and women who graduate from academies actually earn higher average salaries than men. Can we please put to rest that women can't make it in this industry?

If I understand correctly, those coding academies are new and exactly the thing that are trying to end that discrepancy.

When they become more common, and their graduates are becoming more common in the industry, we can put it to rest.

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