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> Women dominated computing professions from their inception in the 1940s all the way through the 1960s. As the scope of computers’ usefulness became clearer, h

by adwn 7y ago

> Women dominated computing professions from their inception in the 1940s all the way through the 1960s. As the scope of computers’ usefulness became clearer, however, those jobs started going to men. Bullshit. Back then, the term "programmer" didn't mean what it means today. A "programmer" was someone who entered a program into a computer, or even earlier, plugged in wires according to a schematic. The actual development of the program was almost exclusively done by men, even more so than today (this is not supposed to be a value judgement, nor do I want to justify the situation back then or today). It's really disappointing to see this tired myth of a supposed "Golden Age of women in computer science" repeated in the article.

raarts 7y ago
Related: the article is misguided on the women thing. I teach CS in college. I see it every day. Women on average are more interested to work with people than men. This hasn't changed despite trying to boost girls' interest in typical STEM fields for 25 years. HR departments have been pouring money into this like mad. Hasn't moved the needle. Research has shown that girls don't fare worse in math tests if they are told beforehand that girls are worse at math. In countries where the sexes are treated more equally men more often choose thing-jobs and women more often choose people jobs. Who thinks that if society would treat everybody completely equal, all occupations would end up exactly even distributed across the sexes? There are real differences between the sexes. The push towards exact equal distribution in everything is futile, hasn't worked and will not work. I think it's more important that people can choose to do what they want to do. Sounds like a rant, sorry.
- jayd16 7y ago
  This is simply inaccurate, at least in the US. The percentage of women in STEM has gone up. The percentage of workers in the computer field is lower than the rest and declining. Your premise also confuses me as I would argue software engineering is more people focused than, say, lab work.
  - raarts 7y ago
    Do note that stem is not one field. It contains medicine and biology but also IT and physics. Likewise IT is not one field. UI/UX design is very different from infrastructure or backend work. Many stats and research lump things together.
  - lunias 7y ago
    Even if the percentage of women in STEM has gone up do you disagree with the assertion that: "Women on average are more interested to work with people than men"? I believe that while societal factors have contributed to women pursuing specific career paths, if one was to factor that out or course-correct in some way you'd still see less women in engineering due to their preferences. Is it wrong to feel like on average men and women are different in their preferences? This is not to say that there are not men who exhibit traditionally female preferences and vice versa. If we could undo the last 2000 years of societal programming (and run a new experiment) I think we'd see different preferences in men and women then we see today, but I seriously doubt you'd see 50/50 engagement across the board because men and women are distinct - although they certainly share a common set of attributes.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]

by adwn 7y ago

raarts 7y ago

Related: the article is misguided on the women thing. I teach CS in college. I see it every day. Women on average are more interested to work with people than men. This hasn't changed despite trying to boost girls' interest in typical STEM fields for 25 years. HR departments have been pouring money into this like mad. Hasn't moved the needle. Research has shown that girls don't fare worse in math tests if they are told beforehand that girls are worse at math. In countries where the sexes are treated more equally men more often choose thing-jobs and women more often choose people jobs. Who thinks that if society would treat everybody completely equal, all occupations would end up exactly even distributed across the sexes? There are real differences between the sexes. The push towards exact equal distribution in everything is futile, hasn't worked and will not work. I think it's more important that people can choose to do what they want to do. Sounds like a rant, sorry.

jayd16 7y ago
This is simply inaccurate, at least in the US. The percentage of women in STEM has gone up. The percentage of workers in the computer field is lower than the rest and declining. Your premise also confuses me as I would argue software engineering is more people focused than, say, lab work.
- raarts 7y ago
  Do note that stem is not one field. It contains medicine and biology but also IT and physics. Likewise IT is not one field. UI/UX design is very different from infrastructure or backend work. Many stats and research lump things together.
- lunias 7y ago
  Even if the percentage of women in STEM has gone up do you disagree with the assertion that: "Women on average are more interested to work with people than men"? I believe that while societal factors have contributed to women pursuing specific career paths, if one was to factor that out or course-correct in some way you'd still see less women in engineering due to their preferences. Is it wrong to feel like on average men and women are different in their preferences? This is not to say that there are not men who exhibit traditionally female preferences and vice versa. If we could undo the last 2000 years of societal programming (and run a new experiment) I think we'd see different preferences in men and women then we see today, but I seriously doubt you'd see 50/50 engagement across the board because men and women are distinct - although they certainly share a common set of attributes.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]