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> Why do you think that? Do you have any evidence to back it up or is this just a feeling? monocultures have explosive growth, but are vulnerable to the same t

> Why do you think that? Do you have any evidence to back it up or is this just a feeling? monocultures have explosive growth, but are vulnerable to the same threats, this means that one small change can bring a company to its knees. Its the same throughout nature. > Any evidence for this? Or just another feeling? https://www.bcs.org/more/about-us/press-office/press-releases/number-of-female-students-studying-computer-science-increases-by-300-in-five-years-new-data-reveals/ https://www.bcs.org/more/about-us/press-office/press-release... shows improvement, but its far from equitable https://www.stemwomen.co.uk/blog/2021/01/women-in-stem-percentages-of-women-in-stem-statistics https://www.stemwomen.co.uk/blog/2021/01/women-in-stem-perce... is for university, and shows a less rosy picture. given the numbers, its pretty clear there is something significant stopping women studying computing. Given the attitudes, and general conditioning that programmers are male, I can see how it arises. As a thought experiment, try this: imagine being a boy at 16 and standing up in front of class and saying that you want to be a nursery assistant. Its not going to end well. Almost the same level of ridicule and "raised eyebrows" would be given to a "normal" girl at 14/15/16 standing up and saying that she was going to be a developer.

globular-toast 6y ago
> given the numbers, its pretty clear there is something significant stopping women studying computing. Or that they are free to do what they want and choose to do something else. I strongly encourage you to expose yourself to people who are not like yourself. Especially women, because they are most unlike you. Believe it or not, vast swathes of the general public have no interest at all in computers or programming. And this is despite it having lower barrier to entry than other technology. The GNU project is coming up to 40 years old and today not only is there more free software than ever before, it's more easily available than ever before. There is a wealth of free training material out there ranging from excellent interactive tutorials for the latest frameworks to full University lecture series. Anyone who wants to do it can do it. But most don't because they are not like you!
- KaiserPro 6y ago
  > I strongly encourage you to expose yourself to people who are not like yourself. I don't hang out with programmers. I live in a council estate in a rough part of london. I am fully aware of the world outside tech. Why? because I spend my time trying to unfuck what the council/government are doing to the people around me. I'm going to level with you. why do I want more women in tech? two reasons: 1) I want my daughter to walk into my job and feel at home. I don't want her to be constantly creeped on like my colleagues are now. (or worse just being told they are wrong because they are different) I want them to feel comfortable like I do. 2) I worked at a number of companies where we had almost parity, it was wonderful. Its hard to describe what it was like, the only way I can think of is when your really loud tinnitus suddenly disappears. > Anyone who wants to do it can do it yeah nah. I had to change my accent to get a job. Nobody hires a country bumpkin. I have coached a number of people, I know they are good programmers, excellent communicators, brilliant interviewers. They have been rejected for "culture fit" reasons, because they are brown, have a vagina, or worse still a long name. At one company, my boss overruled my teams hire because they didn't find a candidate attractive enough. We lost a cheap and brilliant engineer because my boss was being a shit. The last point is this: on the minimum wage, in rented accommodation, getting enough time, space and privacy to learn programming is a herculean task. especially if there only one TV, and you can't just shove your pi in at any time.

globular-toast 6y ago

> given the numbers, its pretty clear there is something significant stopping women studying computing. Or that they are free to do what they want and choose to do something else. I strongly encourage you to expose yourself to people who are not like yourself. Especially women, because they are most unlike you. Believe it or not, vast swathes of the general public have no interest at all in computers or programming. And this is despite it having lower barrier to entry than other technology. The GNU project is coming up to 40 years old and today not only is there more free software than ever before, it's more easily available than ever before. There is a wealth of free training material out there ranging from excellent interactive tutorials for the latest frameworks to full University lecture series. Anyone who wants to do it can do it. But most don't because they are not like you!

KaiserPro 6y ago
> I strongly encourage you to expose yourself to people who are not like yourself. I don't hang out with programmers. I live in a council estate in a rough part of london. I am fully aware of the world outside tech. Why? because I spend my time trying to unfuck what the council/government are doing to the people around me. I'm going to level with you. why do I want more women in tech? two reasons: 1) I want my daughter to walk into my job and feel at home. I don't want her to be constantly creeped on like my colleagues are now. (or worse just being told they are wrong because they are different) I want them to feel comfortable like I do. 2) I worked at a number of companies where we had almost parity, it was wonderful. Its hard to describe what it was like, the only way I can think of is when your really loud tinnitus suddenly disappears. > Anyone who wants to do it can do it yeah nah. I had to change my accent to get a job. Nobody hires a country bumpkin. I have coached a number of people, I know they are good programmers, excellent communicators, brilliant interviewers. They have been rejected for "culture fit" reasons, because they are brown, have a vagina, or worse still a long name. At one company, my boss overruled my teams hire because they didn't find a candidate attractive enough. We lost a cheap and brilliant engineer because my boss was being a shit. The last point is this: on the minimum wage, in rented accommodation, getting enough time, space and privacy to learn programming is a herculean task. especially if there only one TV, and you can't just shove your pi in at any time.