Why Women Don't Code?

Recent studies have shown that gender differences in personality tend to be larger in developed countries. I think more developed countries tend to have a toxic set of socal standards.

If you want to figure out why women are underrepresented in technology, examine the differences between boys and girls toddlers and how they interact with their environment. There is a 'girls toys' isle in store but not a 'boys toys'.

Work you way up to 4th grade and see that most girls remain interested in math and science but when they hit 6th grade something changes, a young woman feels pressure to express herself in certain ways or face social stigma.

There's a reason Big Bang theory is one of the few American shows banned in China, it's not just good old fashioned American anti-intellectualism, it's social engineering.

He argues that the 30% share current top US CS schools are getting is the global maximum. I think he is missing the “Whys” for women in tech and “perceived sense of individual strengths being too good for tech”, is not one of them.

Coding is a form of communication. Knowing how to write is essential today and you’re not going to write less about your passions just because you are so much better at swimming. Some of the reasons I pursued coding were:

- Because I grew up in the middle of nowhere and knew the whole world could see my work online. I didn’t want to be put under a lid. Code, like writing, lets your work be seen across locations and time.

- Because of economic opportunity - I could build tools that earn a living for me, so my earnings are not dependent on my work hours (a very VERY attractive feature for women).

- Because every coding effort is cumulative. No work result is dependent on the testimony of others. You can see if it works or doesn’t and the more you do, the more people see when they see you. Fantastic property when women are often discounted in the workplace.

- Because no matter what new passion I develop, I could always make a living building something around it with code. Handy skill, if you think you have social abilities, not a disadvantage.

The curious part was that I’ve always loved to code, but the periods of burnout that I’ve experienced came from work culture not the nature of the work. Coworkers hitting on female programmers and retaliating when feelings are not reciprocated; meatgriding business models that push for time spent billing vs actual productivity; discounting biased people, who make your life hell by presumption instead of fact. The cure was always to take an entrepreneurial route - work to rise above the role that drains you by using some of those notorious social skills, then build a kick ass project that relies on your skill and not someone else’s permission.

Coding is not a narrow career path and neither is a CS degree. It is a power and a freedomm. Show everyone the basics and let them taste the opportunity it presents in a required K-12 class.

Maybe it's cultural differences, maybe it's preference. I will provide an anecdote. I'm a woman who enjoys coding, and is currently in a math degree. Growing up, my toys were never pre-selected although my mother encouraged my love of puzzles (lego and toys like that). Still, I had an obsession with dolls as most girls seemed to, and I remember genuinely enjoying those things. There was no pressure, I simply liked caring for and dressing up tiny models of myself and my friends. I think for most girls this is genuinely a true preference that carries on into adult life. In fact, I'm still toying with either becoming an independent developer or a math teacher for young children, and often wonder if I'd even like to be a stay-at-home mom and do some freelance stuff.

I don't think we can say either way what it is that "keeps" girls from science, but I honestly lean towards the preference angle. There are differences between males and females and that's okay.

China has just as large, if not larger, challenges in getting women into and keeping them in tech jobs. The overtime cheerleaders don’t help matters.

Also, Big Bang theory is really popular in China, my wife had already seen every episode when we were living in Beijing (I don’t have any intrest in the show). The reason for the ban (which doesn’t affect piracy sites) is probably more financial than cultural.

I agree with a lot of your points. But I feel compelled to respond.

> Coding is a form of communication

Yes, but it's also so much more than this. Not everyone is capable of the mental gymnastics or visualisation required to be a good software engineer, and that's okay.

> Because of economic opportunity...

While there are a ton of practical reasons to do things in life, if you don't love algorithms and data structures (at some level), programming will ultimately be a chore.

That being said, I agree that learning to write code is empowering, and everyone should learn to do it. But that's different from working as a software engineer.

You might enjoy this talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imV3pPIUy1k