Somewhat off-topic, but:
Her novel "The Bug" is good reading; it captures the frustration of trying to chase down an intermittent impossible-to-reproduce bug.
How to Be a ‘Woman Programmer’
31–40 of 60 posts
Re: How to Be a ‘Woman Programmer’
#32Yet another article on Gender politics. Where is the advocacy for black/hispanic/old programmers?
Having said that, I wish there were less politics on HN. I read "Hacker News" for technology and startups, not social engineering.
Re: How to Be a ‘Woman Programmer’
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
And... you're satisfied with that explanation? "There are fewer women in technical careers, because fewer women choose to go into technical careers, QED"? You're not even a little bit curious about why that might be the case?
Aren't you curious why the majority of programmers have dark hair or brown eyes? Sometimes it doesn't matter. I do not necessarily agree with my grandparent comment, but are you advocating going out of your ways to find a problem out of statistics? I'm also fed up with the whole "sexism in tech" bla bla. I don't want more women in tech. I want more talented, more dynamic, more interested or more passionate people in…
>Now we're afraid to talk at a conference or at the office. We never make any joke that might be remotely sexual around female coworkers (note that my female friends usually take it really well).
Welcome to how it feels to be a woman, or a person of color, or gay, or any other person who his regularly discriminated against by society and a culture that elevates the white male simply for being white and male.
By ignoring the problem and not talking about it, you're perpetuating it. There is no societal problem that has been solved by not talking about it, and somehow, that is all I ever see people in the tech world suggest we do.
It's sad and narrow minded.
You say that you don't care about the sex about the person in the industry, but sexism isn't a superficial problem person to person - very little people are going to admit to being sexist or even think that they are - it's an institutional problem.
Every time that you don't say something, or you make an argument like this one, you are sending the message to people who are being discriminated against that the people who say something sexist are okay to do so.
So stop saying it's okay to not talk about. Please.
Re: How to Be a ‘Woman Programmer’
#34Yet another article on Gender politics. Where is the advocacy for black/hispanic/old programmers? Having said that, I wish there were less politics on HN. I read "Hacker News" for technology and startups, not social engineering.
You're right. The tech community is also incredibly racist. But I think we've had some articles about how startups only hire young people because they're willing to work days, nights and weekends.
Re: How to Be a ‘Woman Programmer’
#35Wow, it seems most of the comment here, as of now, decided to overlook the parts of the article that explicitly state problems that are most suffered by women. For example, how this woman had a boss who stroke her hair, or how another boss hated to hire women. That kind of pressure does not exist for most men in the industry. Yes, men suffer from high performance demands in business, but this is not oppression Olympi…
That argument was not an attempt in what you so non-chalantly call "oppression Olympics", but rather to illustrate what some people might ascribe to discrimination is really just common-place. You are also misunderstanding the "small pool of women CS graduates". It's not to suggest that theres no discrimination, but that theres possibly not much you can do at the stage of post-graduation. That this is a result of dis…
Think about all the kids who don't see women in the tech fields and thus don't see it as a viable career path.
The "small pool of women CS graduates" argument is bunkt because CS is a meritocracy - so many men prove themselves through code rather than having gone to a college, and the only reason women don't is because they're discouraged at every turn - upon being hired, in the work place, at social gatherings.
Why does the graduates argument pose a problem for women while its so often celebrated when men skipped college or dropped out of college and became successful within our field?
Re: How to Be a ‘Woman Programmer’
#36It always surprises me that gender prejudice turned by 180 between 1970 and 1980. Programmer was a cheap woman job: Typist, data typist, COBOL programmer was a typical career. It was believed that men can not even type 40 years ago, when I started to become a coder. Suddenly programmer became a male job. And the code quality dropped drastically from 1 bug per 10000 lines to 1 bug per 1000 lines. hey Code had to be bu…
[deleted]
Re: How to Be a ‘Woman Programmer’
#37Yet another article on Gender politics. Where is the advocacy for black/hispanic/old programmers? Having said that, I wish there were less politics on HN. I read "Hacker News" for technology and startups, not social engineering.
Imagine how many more problems would be solved or thought about if we were listening to the other 80% of the world's population - not just white men.
Re: How to Be a ‘Woman Programmer’
#38Quote from original article
"We women found ourselves nearly alone, outsiders in a culture that was sometimes boyishly puerile, sometimes rigorously hierarchical, occasionally friendly and welcoming."
I'd like to know more about the companies that were friendly and welcoming. Can any general principles be found about how to make an organisation feel so? Could those principles be articulated as a guide to others?
Re: How to Be a ‘Woman Programmer’
#39It always surprises me that gender prejudice turned by 180 between 1970 and 1980. Programmer was a cheap woman job: Typist, data typist, COBOL programmer was a typical career. It was believed that men can not even type 40 years ago, when I started to become a coder. Suddenly programmer became a male job. And the code quality dropped drastically from 1 bug per 10000 lines to 1 bug per 1000 lines. hey Code had to be bu…
This is sexism.
Re: How to Be a ‘Woman Programmer’
#40A few points: 1) It's 2013. If you work with men that don't know women are people, find a new job. If they did something excessively stupid or harmful, you should sue them to discourage them from harassing other women. Interviewing is a two way street, you should not only prove that you're able to do a job, but also find out if you want to work with these people. 2) Why learn from asshole managers? The internet exist…
On 3) why is it that in a field where people are lauded (especially here on HN) when they drop out of college or skip college all together and are successful, we continue to come back to the "there are less women graduates" argument?