4 ms·
I've never understood the anti-social stereotype of working software. In order to do the work, most of us need to interact with users of all stripes. It's rare
by ChicagoDave 8y ago
I've never understood the anti-social stereotype of working software. In order to do the work, most of us need to interact with users of all stripes. It's rare that we're isolated in a bubble of men. There are business analysts, project managers, users, stakeholders, scrum masters, QA testers, story development meetings, and daily scrums.
It's one of the most social professions one could arguably enter. Sure we have to code in a cube for most of our week, but anti-social?
Hardly.
In fact, the most successful software engineers are the ones that _are_ social, understand complex social environments, listen well, and know how to engage.
I do agree with the OP that there's a _perception_ of anti-social stereotypes, but I'd argue the problem is that there are few women in tech, men would _love_ to find a tech-oriented partner or date, but the odds of that one woman in your group lining up in all other ways with us is narrow (we're analytical daters - we do the math), we tend to just resign ourselves to staying away from disappointment. And there is the whole sexual harassment aspect too. When we're doing the coworker math in our heads, we're worried about saying something stupid.
It's a self-fulfilling cycle. An unbalanced gender environment creates discomfort by both genders.
We need to actively reconstruct social dynamics within tech circles to break this cycle or it will just continue.
- ChicagoDave 8y agoHow do we break the cycle? Colleges need to get out of the business of teaching CompSci the way the do it now. Less emphasis on science and engineering and more on team building, project management, business analysis, and more. Don't make programmers. To me that's like forcing everyone that plans to work on cars to only understand how to repair brakes. There is a whole lot of car outside of repairing just the brakes. Colleges need to engage in team-oriented software development practices. It shouldn't be computer science specific. It should be business oriented, social, teams, projects, testing, planning, white-boarding, _and_ programming. This is how a lot of businesses run, so we should mimic the environments these graduates will end up in. If we made this one valuable change, we'd possibly attract a more balanced gender population, create social environments for men to evolve properly, allow women to feel comfortable and respected, and generate advocacy for diverse and respectful work environments.
- yosito 8y agoAre you implying that science and engineering are problematic for women? ಠ_ಠ
- ChicagoDave 8y agoHell no. I’m saying our current working population is out of gender balance and women who would otherwise choose software engineering probably prefer to turn towards gender neutral professions, especially given all of the news of places like Uber. We need to change the foundation of tech education to weave in other disciplines so gender balance is achieved. Granted, if a college tried and they still struggled to meet the goal of gender balance, my theory goes out the window. But except for brave and determined women, this imbalance will remain. Let’s take the need for bravery out of the equation, if it’s possible.