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This post doesn’t explain how we lost women in computing. And I’m not sure how this describes evidence of “pushing out.” I think programming is awesome and tha

This post doesn’t explain how we lost women in computing. And I’m not sure how this describes evidence of “pushing out.” I think programming is awesome and that any discrimination limits the value that comes out of programming. It’s bad and should be designed out. I’ve only been doing this for 30 years or so and there have never been many women. That’s not to say that I didn’t work with some smart women, but there weren’t that many. Maybe 1-10%. Maybe there was once a time when there were higher ratios, but I’m not aware of them. And I missed it in this article. There were (and are) great women in technology. But just because there’s not an Ada Lovelace today doesn’t mean she was pushed out. Just that she was a once in a century genius that hasn’t repeated in any gender. Obviously it would be great if we had more Lovelaces and Hoppers, but to expect people of this caliber to reliably repeat or think that’s some signal of bias requires some more thought than this article presents.

saurik 5y ago
> Maybe there was once a time when there were higher ratios, but I’m not aware of them. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-women-stopped-coding https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when...
- ghaff 5y ago
  Yeah. I agree with the article there almost certainly isn't a singular reason. But the timeline correlation to personal computers (and associated gaming) is hard to shrug off. And it makes sense. Another aspect of the same correlation is that, at the university level, computers increasingly became something you were sort of expected to have some familiarity with if you were going to major in computer science. Today, look at the intro computer science classes at most of the better schools and imagine take them never having really done any programming or serious computer use before. (And of course gender imbalance can beget gender imbalance for all sorts of reasons.)
- prepend 5y ago
  This article needs more work. Comparing Computer Science degrees to progressional programs like medical school or law school shouldn’t be done because they are very different. It seems like labor stats should be used but I can’t find BLS stats breaking out gender. These degree stats could be explained by other science degrees becoming less sexist and allowing more women (ie, computer science goes down because other science goes up). Lots of potential reasons.

saurik 5y ago

> Maybe there was once a time when there were higher ratios, but I’m not aware of them. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-women-stopped-coding https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when...

ghaff 5y ago
Yeah. I agree with the article there almost certainly isn't a singular reason. But the timeline correlation to personal computers (and associated gaming) is hard to shrug off. And it makes sense. Another aspect of the same correlation is that, at the university level, computers increasingly became something you were sort of expected to have some familiarity with if you were going to major in computer science. Today, look at the intro computer science classes at most of the better schools and imagine take them never having really done any programming or serious computer use before. (And of course gender imbalance can beget gender imbalance for all sorts of reasons.)
prepend 5y ago
This article needs more work. Comparing Computer Science degrees to progressional programs like medical school or law school shouldn’t be done because they are very different. It seems like labor stats should be used but I can’t find BLS stats breaking out gender. These degree stats could be explained by other science degrees becoming less sexist and allowing more women (ie, computer science goes down because other science goes up). Lots of potential reasons.