Django Girls one year later
lwn.net
Django Girls one year later
1–10 of 131 posts
Re: Django Girls one year later
#2The slide illustrations are brilliant. Refreshing to see that level of art direction at a tech conference.
Re: Django Girls one year later
#3The room is decorated with flowers and balloons, rather than being a "boring classroom" and they do fun things like cupcake tasting or yoga during the day.
I suppose that could attract a certain audience but I think a number of girls could feel a bit uncomfortable being pigeon-holed as liking all things "girly".
When I was in High School I would have been aghast if someone held a "guy's programming workshop" with weight-lifting and sports-talk.
Re: Django Girls one year later
#4The room is decorated with flowers and balloons, rather than being a "boring classroom" and they do fun things like cupcake tasting or yoga during the day. I suppose that could attract a certain audience but I think a number of girls could feel a bit uncomfortable being pigeon-holed as liking all things "girly". When I was in High School I would have been aghast if someone held a "guy's programming workshop" with wei…
You're overthinking it. They're doing those things because they're fun things to do. If someone gave a programming workshop and had a games room where you could play arcade games, air hockey, shoot pool and play pinball on your breaks, I certainly wouldn't complain. I'd even like trying yoga and cupcakes!
Re: Django Girls one year later
#5The room is decorated with flowers and balloons, rather than being a "boring classroom" and they do fun things like cupcake tasting or yoga during the day. I suppose that could attract a certain audience but I think a number of girls could feel a bit uncomfortable being pigeon-holed as liking all things "girly". When I was in High School I would have been aghast if someone held a "guy's programming workshop" with wei…
I'm in the "whatever works" camp. If someone were to create a "guy's programming workshop" with weight-lifting and sports-talk, I'd welcome the experiment. It's all fine as long as the market demand for programmers is going unmet.
Re: Django Girls one year later
#6The room is decorated with flowers and balloons, rather than being a "boring classroom" and they do fun things like cupcake tasting or yoga during the day. I suppose that could attract a certain audience but I think a number of girls could feel a bit uncomfortable being pigeon-holed as liking all things "girly". When I was in High School I would have been aghast if someone held a "guy's programming workshop" with wei…
You're overthinking it. They're doing those things because they're fun things to do. If someone gave a programming workshop and had a games room where you could play arcade games, air hockey, shoot pool and play pinball on your breaks, I certainly wouldn't complain. I'd even like trying yoga and cupcakes!
I agree that Joe is probably overthinking it, but at the same time, I would be turned off to find myself at a programming event that plays up my "maleness" by stuffing in lots of sports things ;) On the other hand, I find flowers infinitely less annoying than football, so...
One of the deeper issues that will probably never go away for many people in tech (no matter their gender) is the realization that completely fitting in is unlikely to ever happen, and that maybe this is a good thing. To pick up one of the metaphors used in the article: yes, if you're a squirrel, at first glance it may seem that all the other creatures in the forest are completely identical badgers - but upon further investigation it turns out they're all aliens from thousands of different planets, each wearing badly-made badger costumes [which, by the way, is also almost exactly the narrative of the original presentation - just watched it].
Re: Django Girls one year later
#7Going through their website, it seems like one of the best Django tutorials I've seen, irrespective of gender.
Re: Django Girls one year later
#8The slide illustrations are brilliant. Refreshing to see that level of art direction at a tech conference.
I like them too.
I was going to show this to my daughter but after reviewing the slides, I think I'd prefer not to focus on whatever negativity/discrimination occurs in the industry but rather the positive aspects of encouragement/camaraderie/sorority.
It's probably appropriate for women and girls who have encountered those setbacks but my daughter's old enough to benefit from programming but young/naive enough not to have seen much of the frustrations cited in the slides.
Re: Django Girls one year later
#9In every work environment which has an clear gender imbalance we see the same stories of the minority group being pushed out by the majority group. The minority group feel pressured to be more majority-like to fit in, receive comments like "you are good for a minority person", and feel a social expectancy to be more like the majority group. Those who don't behave correctly report of being silenced and treated in a very hostile way and normally end up leaving the profession shortly afterward. This kind of gender inequality is then seen in 90% of all profession (Swedish statistics from SCB in 2010) where the top 3 have less than 1% of a minority gender.
When reading this kind article I wonder how useful it is to pitch it as a fight between badgers and squirrels. 87% of squirrels work in a profession hostile to badgers, and 88% of badgers work in a profession hostile to squirrels. Having been personally in both environments once, even if it was a very short time, I can't help to see a big lack of common understanding of each sides plight when they are a minority.
Re: Django Girls one year later
#10Going through their website, it seems like one of the best Django tutorials I've seen, irrespective of gender.
Disclaimer: I'm a civilian as regards coding but I work as a teacher and I mentor new teachers...
The pedagogic design is really good as well, see the Coaching Guide and Organiser's Manual. This is quality stuff.