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I am surprised at rare occurrences, and will continue to be so. The author is treated the way technical men have learned, through social pressure, to treat ave

I am surprised at rare occurrences, and will continue to be so. The author is treated the way technical men have learned, through social pressure, to treat average women. The intersection of the sets of women who are technically competent, and want to converse with me about technology is small. I've spent 22 years learning that the average woman will disdain me if I so much as open my mouth about some of my interests. I'm sorry, I can't magically intuit for which few it becomes prerequisite as a demonstration of respect.

efsavage 16y ago
This is key. The number of encounters with women where my technical aptitude was an uninteresting quirk outnumbers those where it was a conversation point by probably 100:1 if not more. With men, that ratio is far lower. I think this whole situation is a very slowly unraveling catch-22 where women aren't interested in tech because they don't feel welcome, and they aren't welcomed because they aren't interested. These days, tech is so pervasive (even the girliest-of-girls probably has a very powerful computer in their purse by way of their phone), that I think it will work it's way loose over time. It can't happen fast enough, IMO, it's hard enough already to find talented people, I'd like to see the pool doubled.
rada 16y ago
The author is not talking about average women though. She is talking about professional women attending technology conferences. Also, I am not sure why you feel particularly pressured not to talk shop in front of women. As a female programmer I shut up about technology when talking to an average guy just as much as I would talking to a woman, or for that matter, just as much as anyone in any field avoids talking shop to people of any gender outside their particular knowledge domain. I really feel that you are being a bit disingenuous when you say that you can't "magically intuit for which few it becomes prerequisite" to talk about techie stuff. Surely it's pretty easy to intuit a person's interest at a technology event.

efsavage 16y ago

This is key. The number of encounters with women where my technical aptitude was an uninteresting quirk outnumbers those where it was a conversation point by probably 100:1 if not more. With men, that ratio is far lower. I think this whole situation is a very slowly unraveling catch-22 where women aren't interested in tech because they don't feel welcome, and they aren't welcomed because they aren't interested. These days, tech is so pervasive (even the girliest-of-girls probably has a very powerful computer in their purse by way of their phone), that I think it will work it's way loose over time. It can't happen fast enough, IMO, it's hard enough already to find talented people, I'd like to see the pool doubled.

rada 16y ago

The author is not talking about average women though. She is talking about professional women attending technology conferences. Also, I am not sure why you feel particularly pressured not to talk shop in front of women. As a female programmer I shut up about technology when talking to an average guy just as much as I would talking to a woman, or for that matter, just as much as anyone in any field avoids talking shop to people of any gender outside their particular knowledge domain. I really feel that you are being a bit disingenuous when you say that you can't "magically intuit for which few it becomes prerequisite" to talk about techie stuff. Surely it's pretty easy to intuit a person's interest at a technology event.