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I think this article really misses the mark by trying to claim that the divide between front-end and back-end development is based on gender, that it only exist
by bfrydl 9y ago
I think this article really misses the mark by trying to claim that the divide between front-end and back-end development is based on gender, that it only exists now where it did not before because of women entering the field. By my observation, there simply was no such thing as a “front-end developer” until recently, as more and more logic as pushed to the front-end over time.
Many people in the industry do view front-end development as less prestigious than back-end development, but that's because it exists on a spectrum between design and engineering with the majority of the work closer to the former side. While many front-end development jobs are on the same level of engineering as back-end development jobs, these are not the jobs being done by “self-taught coders and designers” as the author describes them, and require a lot more than learning HTML and CSS.
While it is most likely true that women face gender discrimination when looking for back-end work, the author doesn't really seem to be talking about those women. Instead, the focus is on women who apparently only have web design skills, which aren't enough to earn either gender prestigious engineering positions.
- fumplethumb 9y agoI agree that the author seems to be conflating front-end development with web design, two different fields requiring two different skillsets.
- curtis 9y agoI think many of the people coming into the software engineering field by unconventional paths often start out as web designers and then move on to web development. One reason these people may be making less money than software engineers working on the back end is that they have far less experience. I started programming at 13, spent 5 years getting a computer science degree, and now I've spent my entire career doing software development. If you consider my level of experience at say 28 vs someone who first learned to program only in their mid-to-late-20s, there's a big difference. Also many people who move from web design to web development may stay there, not because they're stuck, but because it already pays pretty well and they like it.
- paulddraper 9y agoIt's like criminal vs. civil lawyers. Criminal seems more prestigious or something, but that's not a correct notion.