Where are all the women?
I've seen a lot of articles lately about women in IT, computer science classes, technical industries, etc. The lack of them, the declining numbers, the declining %'s, how to get more of them, how to pander to their tastes, etc.
My question is, why? Why all the extra energy for just women? Are they magical in some way that I'm not aware of? More deserving of special treatment? Somehow "better" than any other group that ISN'T getting all this love? Do the people writing these articles have some sort of ulterior motive of their ultimate porn fantasy? Why not "Where are all the [insert demographic here]"?
I don't THINK I'm sexist*, but all I want from coworkers and people in the IT (or ANY) industry is people I can get along with and can do the job. Women, men, Antareans, amoebas, fungi; I don't care. Do your job, don't keep me from doing mine, help me when you can and I'll do the same.
* Before you comment, me being sexist would be me saying I want fewer women or to somehow make it harder for them, which I'm not. What I'm saying here is... I don't care if there are more, OR fewer. All I want is qualified people.
My question is, why? Why all the extra energy for just women? Are they magical in some way that I'm not aware of? More deserving of special treatment? Somehow "better" than any other group that ISN'T getting all this love? Do the people writing these articles have some sort of ulterior motive of their ultimate porn fantasy? Why not "Where are all the [insert demographic here]"?
I don't THINK I'm sexist*, but all I want from coworkers and people in the IT (or ANY) industry is people I can get along with and can do the job. Women, men, Antareans, amoebas, fungi; I don't care. Do your job, don't keep me from doing mine, help me when you can and I'll do the same.
* Before you comment, me being sexist would be me saying I want fewer women or to somehow make it harder for them, which I'm not. What I'm saying here is... I don't care if there are more, OR fewer. All I want is qualified people.
posted by Michael Campbell @ 2:32 PM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
Women are usually discouraged from the engineering and computer science majors by men. Some men are 'creepers' who just hit on any woman in the same field as they are. It happens in universities, startup events, and even at work.
I know what you mean about qualified women, but then there are not many qualified men I have met. I've met men with PHDs that didn't know what they were doing, for example, and I had to teach them how a computer works, how to operate a computer, how to program, etc. Stuff they were supposed to learn at the university they got a PHD from.
We really should not explode women or men from the industry just because they are not qualified, because we can tutor and train and mentor them to becoming better and more qualified.
I am all for ending sexual harassment and discrimination, but the ratio of qualified men to women in the computer and engineering industry is very lopsided. When I took computer science courses at a university in the mid-1980s there were few women taking the same courses. That has changed over time and now more women take courses but not near enough that we need to fill jobs to meet equality.
I cannot really explain why more women don't pick math and science majors, I think in elementary school they were discouraged to learn them, and those classes were more aimed towards boys instead of girls. It has only recently been corrected to be aimed towards girls now so that more girls will take more math and science and end up in the future taking computer and engineering university courses as a result. Give it time and it will even out, or maybe in the next decade more women than men will take computer and engineering courses.
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