To the Girls of HackerNews: I am a Female Founder who Codes
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Re: To the Girls of HackerNews: I am a Female Founder who Codes
#2We know that we've reached gender equality when both men and women have the same possibilities, but for that to happen, each individual has to realise that just because you're a man doesn't mean that you can't work with girly products and vice versa.
Good article, I think you're right on target with the issue.
Re: To the Girls of HackerNews: I am a Female Founder who Codes
#3There is nothing about programming computers that is gender specific; in fact it seems kind of weird and awkward that we have to discuss this at all.
Given that so many of the foundational figures of the field ( Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, etc. ) were female, the fact that programming and IT became an almost entirely male-dominated profession is suspicious, and should make us question the attitudes and social constructs that brought this about.
Re: To the Girls of HackerNews: I am a Female Founder who Codes
#4I hope this article goes viral. I can't believe we're still not over these stupid preconceptions that intellect has anything to do with our reproductive organs. It shouldn't have anything to do with luck, but still: Best of luck to all you girls out there!
Re: To the Girls of HackerNews: I am a Female Founder who Codes
#5This seems like it should be addressed more towards non-technical founders who should learn to code, not specifically women.
Otherwise, it's built on the assumption that most females on Hacker News don't already know how to code, which may or may not be the case.
Re: To the Girls of HackerNews: I am a Female Founder who Codes
#6I hope this article goes viral. I can't believe we're still not over these stupid preconceptions that intellect has anything to do with our reproductive organs. It shouldn't have anything to do with luck, but still: Best of luck to all you girls out there!
Sent it to my girlfriend, who's a clever pythonista
Re: To the Girls of HackerNews: I am a Female Founder who Codes
#7To the Boys of HackerNews: I am a Male Founder who Codes but no one cares because there's too many of us and that makes us not at all interesting.
Have women have ever been robbed of being able to code like voting? Why does it receive so much attention? What adversity did they need to overcome to be where they are? Is it physical like someone who suffers from carpal tunnel syndrome or glaucoma overcoming their disability? Is it mental like someone who suffers from dyslexia mastering programming? Or was it political like a North Korean who discovered coding while facing imminent persecution for the forbidden knowledge?
I know women who can code just like men and they are great at it but their gender has nothing to do with it, it's just their ability and strengths as developers. Does a person's gender really merit so much of our attention when the basis for the argument is as superficial as a binary label society have placed on people, never mind the the other categories of people that fall in between and who are shunned.
Re: To the Girls of HackerNews: I am a Female Founder who Codes
#8There is nothing about programming computers that is gender specific; in fact it seems kind of weird and awkward that we have to discuss this at all. Given that so many of the foundational figures of the field ( Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, etc. ) were female, the fact that programming and IT became an almost entirely male-dominated profession is suspicious, and should make us question the attitudes and social constru…
Nothing about the 1s & 0s themselves, but most of the environments & presentations where it happens? Those tend to lean stereotypical-male-centered[1][2].
1. http://www.motherjones.com/media/2012/04/silicon-valley-brog...
2. http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-idiocy-of-techcrunch-di...
Re: To the Girls of HackerNews: I am a Female Founder who Codes
#9I run a private education organization that teaches kids how to code at a physical facility, and we get a gender breakup of male and female students that is similar to that of the industry (around 80 - 20). Because of the overwhelming male presence, it is difficult to make a comfortable learning environment for the female students, who may often feel uncomfortable, at odds with, or ostracized by pseudo-masculine efforts undertaken by adolescent males. It's at this level that computer education becomes challenging for females, at that awkward stage where not all the boys have yet learned how to shower daily.
Our solution was to simply make a small set of our classes for girls only. This provides girls with the option of learning either in an all-girls or a regular environment, so girls who feel uncomfortable are not discouraged to the point that they drop out.
Re: To the Girls of HackerNews: I am a Female Founder who Codes
#10I run a private education organization that teaches kids how to code at a physical facility, and we get a gender breakup of male and female students that is similar to that of the industry (around 80 - 20). Because of the overwhelming male presence, it is difficult to make a comfortable learning environment for the female students, who may often feel uncomfortable, at odds with, or ostracized by pseudo-masculine effo…
This is extremely sexist and needlessly hostile. It's like being male and interested in coding is somehow associated with all the stereotypical male attributes which turns off women from coding. Ah, so we need to have boys acting less like boys because it's clearly why we don't have more women in tech. So we all need to teach teen boys to become meterosexual so it can be more inviting and suitable for females?
I think if you want more women to be coding, you have failed definitely. Why not show that women can be as strong as the boys, can rub shoulders and brain and still come out on top? By segregating based on gender, you only support that women have stereotypical attributes which prevent them from being as good as men, and men are good because of their stereotypical attributes.
Your genitals do not make you a coder, it's really down to the culture and societal expectations of both genders.