I've heard murmurs of a RailsGirls workshop here in Austin and I know a few of my female friends were very interested in attending when I talked to them about i

I've heard murmurs of a RailsGirls workshop here in Austin and I know a few of my female friends were very interested in attending when I talked to them about it. I think it's great to try to get more women involved in the industry, and while Rails is complicated enough that you can nearly guarantee most people won't walk away with any true understanding of programming, I think workshops like this can help undo some of the negative misconceptions/stereotypes that surround the programming community. Just like the misconception that "math is hard and/or useless" is under assault, I hope the idea that programming is only done by "geniuses" or "ultra-nerds" can be broken and the barriers for entry and for learning are broken down for the benefit of us all. I am also a little reminded of my first forays into learning Rails with no prior programming experience. I think one of the biggest turning points for me was when I realized the concepts for massive services like twitter were not only understood by crazy math ph.d geniuses untouchable by the common man. It is really empowering to realize you can create real software that can actually do things people need without decades of experience under your belt. I think workshops like this and RailsGirls which have you create an actual (albeit simple) application are great for just that reason.