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BBC Radio 4 - Friday, 25th January 2013. Relevant scheduled content [1]: Male Geeks Rise Up for Women At present, only 30% of computing jobs are filled by wom

by drucken 14y ago

BBC Radio 4 - Friday, 25th January 2013. Relevant scheduled content [1]: Male Geeks Rise Up for Women At present, only 30% of computing jobs are filled by women and when it comes to the number of female speakers at computer conferences, the figure is much, much smaller. In an attempt to address this problem, men are now signing an online pledge to boycott conferences where there are no women on the panel. But just how effective can this tactic be? Should men be doing more to get women and girls into computing? And does the problem really lie with conference organisers or in the fact that just not enough girls are taking computer studies at school? Jenni talks to Aral Balkan, a web designer, who has signed the pledge, to 13 year old Amy who loves computer programming and to Dr Tom Crick, Chair of Computing at School in Wales. So, the only woman on that panel, including discussing "affirmative" action like boycotting technical conferences, is a 13 year old girl... My initial skepticism of an article that seemed to be hastily written in anger and with no trivial amount of bridge burning has been replaced with incredulity! [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01q0333 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01q0333

AlexLegg 14y ago
You don't need to be a woman to have an opinion on affirmative action. I don't see what the problem is with running a piece that is specifically about a male perspective and having mostly male guests. Especially considering that this is a show that caters to women's issues and female guests are (I assume) the norm. They probably decided to run a piece about equality in the tech sector and, on discovering that there are men with strong opinions about the problem, chose to take the opportunity to take a male angle. An opportunity that problem doesn't come up all that often for them given that most men are fairly apathetic about sexism.
drtomcrick 14y ago
This is clearly a contentious issue, but when I spoke to the Women's Hour producer this morning, they said they specifically wanted a male perspective on this issue. I did not know that anyone had been bumped or that I was the x choice guest...! Therefore, I am keeping an open mind going into the show tomorrow, but I am very much looking forward to talking about how Computing At School (CAS) is trying to change the perception of computer science and tech careers in the UK. @DrTomCrick

by drucken 14y ago

AlexLegg 14y ago

You don't need to be a woman to have an opinion on affirmative action. I don't see what the problem is with running a piece that is specifically about a male perspective and having mostly male guests. Especially considering that this is a show that caters to women's issues and female guests are (I assume) the norm. They probably decided to run a piece about equality in the tech sector and, on discovering that there are men with strong opinions about the problem, chose to take the opportunity to take a male angle. An opportunity that problem doesn't come up all that often for them given that most men are fairly apathetic about sexism.

drtomcrick 14y ago

This is clearly a contentious issue, but when I spoke to the Women's Hour producer this morning, they said they specifically wanted a male perspective on this issue. I did not know that anyone had been bumped or that I was the x choice guest...! Therefore, I am keeping an open mind going into the show tomorrow, but I am very much looking forward to talking about how Computing At School (CAS) is trying to change the perception of computer science and tech careers in the UK. @DrTomCrick