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I remember reading that there was an active re-framing of the computer worker. It was somewhat reflected by employers that started hiring exclusively men and of

I remember reading that there was an active re-framing of the computer worker. It was somewhat reflected by employers that started hiring exclusively men and of computer workers being associated with nerds and geeks, and the combination could have driven woman away. Also I don't know that finding ads that targeted woman by simply searching Google is a rebuttal that ads were almost entirely targeted at boys. As it tell us nothing of the prevalance and quantity of each. That said, I agree I don't think the ads were a major part of it. It's the culture, and what I heard is the culture shift happened once computer work was seen as requiring rigorous knowledge, intellectualism and was starting to pay well. I'm not gonna advance I know the truth of these hypothesis, but I think it would make a lot of sense that once the job was seen as lucrative and similar in qualities (like the skill needed) to other jobs culturally associated with men, that the culture similarly rebranded computers as being for boys.

surgical_fire 1y ago
> but I think it would make a lot of sense that once the job was seen as lucrative and similar in qualities (like the skill needed) to other jobs culturally associated with men, that the culture similarly rebranded computers as being for boys. This sounds very revisionist. When I was a kid in the late 80s and early 90s, absolutely no one spoke of "working with computers" as a glamorous career path or associated it with well paid jobs. Much to the opposite, being interested in computers made you into a sort of social pariah in school. Girls wouldn't touch computers much for that reason - hell, my group of friends would fall over one another to accommodate any girl that showed even a remote interest in anything nerdy, not that those were in plentiful supply. It was quite pathetic really. It was much later that "working with computers" was associated with being well off in terms of money, more or less at the same time when there was an explosion of active efforts to get more women into coding. And honestly, especially as a father of a little girl, I welcome the effort to make it more egalitarian and all. But let's not pretend that 30 years ago women were being held back from computers by a shadowy conspiracy to keep them from cushy jobs. They just didn't enjoy the thing.

surgical_fire 1y ago

> but I think it would make a lot of sense that once the job was seen as lucrative and similar in qualities (like the skill needed) to other jobs culturally associated with men, that the culture similarly rebranded computers as being for boys. This sounds very revisionist. When I was a kid in the late 80s and early 90s, absolutely no one spoke of "working with computers" as a glamorous career path or associated it with well paid jobs. Much to the opposite, being interested in computers made you into a sort of social pariah in school. Girls wouldn't touch computers much for that reason - hell, my group of friends would fall over one another to accommodate any girl that showed even a remote interest in anything nerdy, not that those were in plentiful supply. It was quite pathetic really. It was much later that "working with computers" was associated with being well off in terms of money, more or less at the same time when there was an explosion of active efforts to get more women into coding. And honestly, especially as a father of a little girl, I welcome the effort to make it more egalitarian and all. But let's not pretend that 30 years ago women were being held back from computers by a shadowy conspiracy to keep them from cushy jobs. They just didn't enjoy the thing.