A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
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Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#2> Go befriend a girl in your class or company. It’s not creepy.
As an unattractive computer nerd, I've been regularly reminded my entire life that I am creepy. Skipping.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#3> Go befriend a girl in your class or company. It’s not creepy. As an unattractive computer nerd, I've been regularly reminded my entire life that I am creepy. Skipping.
Dont give up, learn the basics of human interactions and get interested in people, your life will change.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#4I notice that the big decline in female enrollment in CS came around the time the Hollywood stereotype of a computer programmer changed from a well-intentioned labcoated professional whose creation might have gotten a bit out of control to a basement dwelling hacker carrying out a solo fight against the bullies, the man, etc.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#5Interesting that popular perception is that it is hard to be a woman in STEM because you get so much unwanted attention, but in this case it was exactly the opposite. She wasn't able to find lab partners for projects in male majority classes and felt lonely.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#6> Go befriend a girl in your class or company. It’s not creepy. As an unattractive computer nerd, I've been regularly reminded my entire life that I am creepy. Skipping.
Dont give up, learn the basics of human interactions and get interested in people, your life will change.
I think it's a bit unfair to assume that people who are considered creepy must not know basic human interactions. A lot of people's initial opinion of you is guided subconsciously by how attractive you are. It's foolish to believe that looks don't play a huge role.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#7Interesting that popular perception is that it is hard to be a woman in STEM because you get so much unwanted attention, but in this case it was exactly the opposite. She wasn't able to find lab partners for projects in male majority classes and felt lonely.
I just don’t see how that could be. When I was studying, we had 2 girls in a peer group of roughly 90 people. All they had to do to find a lab partner is have a pulse. Interestingly, both have graduated, and neither is using her degree now.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#8The first part of this had great citations to cite that women are more social. Where the data was lacking is that 1) software is perceived as anti-social and 2) that other anti-social careers face similar problems to software engineering.
For example if socialization was such a critical decider, why are some many women maids or professional housekeepers? Most people in this career don't get much on-the-job socialization. Or what about accounting and book keeping; which is a professional, white collar career that also happens to employ more women than men?
While socialization may be a part of the equation, there's a lot more going on here and simply blaming women for being "too social" just panders to common stereotypes.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#9> Go befriend a girl in your class or company. It’s not creepy. As an unattractive computer nerd, I've been regularly reminded my entire life that I am creepy. Skipping.
Dont give up, learn the basics of human interactions and get interested in people, your life will change.
People who do that get regularly called creepy for just trying to talk to women. You're telling someone not to give up on the very thing getting them called out as "a creep".
Hell in some countries, you get called creepy for doing that for trying to befriend anyone outside of very specific social situations. When I was in Stockholm, approaching strangers and striking up a conversation was seen as generally rude.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#10> Go befriend a girl in your class or company. It’s not creepy. As an unattractive computer nerd, I've been regularly reminded my entire life that I am creepy. Skipping.
Dont give up, learn the basics of human interactions and get interested in people, your life will change.
Advice like this is similar to telling a depressed person to just be happier.