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this was lovely, until you get the the last part, which just completely ruined the story. Trigger suggests creating classes specifically for women who want to

this was lovely, until you get the the last part, which just completely ruined the story. Trigger suggests creating classes specifically for women who want to code as a possible solution to this particular digital divide, the trick is to not be intimidated ,“[Code] is something that nobody should be afraid of. “

marquis 15y ago
Why do you see this as a bad thing? It's been discussed on HN hundreds of times that it's hard for women to know where to start, how to jump in and find out if they even enjoy coding. I'm a complete outlier in my field as a woman in technology, as an actual developer I rarely engage with other women on my level. I was recently at a dev conference and there was another woman there - it was really nice to feel that the space was opening up (and to find out she'd been in the industry longer than me made me even happier).
yardie 15y ago
For an introductory class she might be correct. While many other domains have their trolls gaming and programming just seem to bring out the most. I've been at the group table when some idiot CS major has decreed that only his ideas are worthy because he's been programming since 9 and you only started a month ago. This was an intro course, he wasn't that great to be around and 1/5 of the class was just like him. A lot of universities have been trying to fix it, but it's the CS major itself that caused most of the problems. You weren't allowed to collaborate so people got frustrated early on (ie. you think you suck, you think everyone else is better than you, you quit the program based on false data). Some of the instructors were hostile toward women (they eventually retired or were replaced). And they couldn't get an intro course going that didn't appear to dumb down the material. Plus a woman only intro CS course violates Title 9.
davidu 15y ago
Why not? It works for science and math classes.

marquis 15y ago

Why do you see this as a bad thing? It's been discussed on HN hundreds of times that it's hard for women to know where to start, how to jump in and find out if they even enjoy coding. I'm a complete outlier in my field as a woman in technology, as an actual developer I rarely engage with other women on my level. I was recently at a dev conference and there was another woman there - it was really nice to feel that the space was opening up (and to find out she'd been in the industry longer than me made me even happier).

yardie 15y ago

For an introductory class she might be correct. While many other domains have their trolls gaming and programming just seem to bring out the most. I've been at the group table when some idiot CS major has decreed that only his ideas are worthy because he's been programming since 9 and you only started a month ago. This was an intro course, he wasn't that great to be around and 1/5 of the class was just like him. A lot of universities have been trying to fix it, but it's the CS major itself that caused most of the problems. You weren't allowed to collaborate so people got frustrated early on (ie. you think you suck, you think everyone else is better than you, you quit the program based on false data). Some of the instructors were hostile toward women (they eventually retired or were replaced). And they couldn't get an intro course going that didn't appear to dumb down the material. Plus a woman only intro CS course violates Title 9.

davidu 15y ago

Why not? It works for science and math classes.