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The story i've heard is that the olden days, operating a computer was seen as clerical work, just like being a secretary, so ideally suited to women. Then we g
by twic 5y ago
The story i've heard is that the olden days, operating a computer was seen as clerical work, just like being a secretary, so ideally suited to women.
Then we got 8-bit microcomputers in every home, and operating a computer became a technical hobby, so ideally suited to boys.
The generation of boys growing up playing with computers, and girls not playing with computers, swamped any existing biases in the industry.
I wonder if the communist countries had the former phase, but because not so many homes had computers, not the latter.
- notanzaiiswear 5y agoHow many women were in electronics? I think the 8 Bit Homecomputer thing grew out of the electronics hobby, not office computers.
- zajio1am 5y ago> The story i've heard is that the olden days, operating a computer was seen as clerical work, just like being a secretary, so ideally suited to women. The fact is that in the old days, there really was plenty of clerical work around computers that just disappeared. Like rewritting data to punched cards and swapping wheels with punched tapes. My grandmother worked in 'data-processing facility' in a communist country, the facility employed many women, but they were (from whay i heard) essentially clerical positions without much CS/EE knowledge.