4 ms·

On Girls, Boys, and IT Careers

14 points by babyshake 18y ago

warwick 18y ago
It's almost cliche to say that we need more females in tech. Most of the time, these kinds of arguments center around the disproportionate male/female ratios and talk about how we might correct them. They never really say /why/ we need more females in tech. The speaker in the video presents a real and compelling argument. The female way of looking at technology, at how interactions occur, at how tech shapes the world and how the future will happen, all of this is different from the male perspective. And it's a valuable perspective. Having females in the tech workplace isn't just a matter of being politically correct. It's a matter of not dismissing a fascinating and helpful way of looking at the world.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
Tichy 18y ago
OK, she is the one who has done research in it for 20 years, but it all seemed too cliched to me. Honestly, I don't believe that girls are always only thinking socially, nice and eco-friendly, while boys dream of guns and bombs. Too bad she only presented anecdotal evidence, which makes me suspect they only saw what they wanted to see. For example, it would have been interesting to see 20 pictures drawn by girls and 20 pictures by boys, instead she only presented one each. Maybe women have more choices in their work life (because they can always marry and have children, so they do not have to worry as much about their career), so they tend to choose more attractive professions (less stressful or higher social status - I hear a lot of women are becoming doctors and lawyers). That is my theory (I know it sounds a bit cynical), at least I think that is a factor. Now to me personally software development is attractive, but only so so - I like to build and create things, not necessarily the part where one sits in front of the computer all day, hardly talking to anyone. Also, where are the campaigns to make more men become school teachers and kindergarden workers?
- rw140 18y ago
  "For example, it would have been interesting to see 20 pictures drawn by girls and 20 pictures by boys, instead she only presented one each." Well, yes, but to me it looked like she was trying to show a typical example from each category. This is a presentation, so the emphasis is necessarily on story-telling, rather than detailed analysis. I would imagine she could have shown a whole load of charts and graphs, but I that would have been rather boring. "Honestly, I don't believe that girls are always only thinking socially, nice and eco-friendly, while boys dream of guns and bombs." Neither do I. But I think there's a useful point she was making about thinking about the way things interact / what they allow users to do, rather than programs that work fine by themselves but do not play well with others (every morning I load a bunch of stuff and watch them steal focus from each other) and implementing features because it's quite cool that you can do this thing we'll find a use for it later (yay, bloat!). "Also, where are the campaigns to make more men become school teachers and kindergarden workers?" I don't know. We should probably ought to have some, but expecting them to be provided by the tech industry is a little optimistic.

14 points by babyshake 18y ago

It's almost cliche to say that we need more females in tech. Most of the time, these kinds of arguments center around the disproportionate male/female ratios and talk about how we might correct them. They never really say /why/ we need more females in tech. The speaker in the video presents a real and compelling argument. The female way of looking at technology, at how interactions occur, at how tech shapes the world and how the future will happen, all of this is different from the male perspective. And it's a valuable perspective. Having females in the tech workplace isn't just a matter of being politically correct. It's a matter of not dismissing a fascinating and helpful way of looking at the world.

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]

Tichy 18y ago

OK, she is the one who has done research in it for 20 years, but it all seemed too cliched to me. Honestly, I don't believe that girls are always only thinking socially, nice and eco-friendly, while boys dream of guns and bombs. Too bad she only presented anecdotal evidence, which makes me suspect they only saw what they wanted to see. For example, it would have been interesting to see 20 pictures drawn by girls and 20 pictures by boys, instead she only presented one each. Maybe women have more choices in their work life (because they can always marry and have children, so they do not have to worry as much about their career), so they tend to choose more attractive professions (less stressful or higher social status - I hear a lot of women are becoming doctors and lawyers). That is my theory (I know it sounds a bit cynical), at least I think that is a factor. Now to me personally software development is attractive, but only so so - I like to build and create things, not necessarily the part where one sits in front of the computer all day, hardly talking to anyone. Also, where are the campaigns to make more men become school teachers and kindergarden workers?

rw140 18y ago
"For example, it would have been interesting to see 20 pictures drawn by girls and 20 pictures by boys, instead she only presented one each." Well, yes, but to me it looked like she was trying to show a typical example from each category. This is a presentation, so the emphasis is necessarily on story-telling, rather than detailed analysis. I would imagine she could have shown a whole load of charts and graphs, but I that would have been rather boring. "Honestly, I don't believe that girls are always only thinking socially, nice and eco-friendly, while boys dream of guns and bombs." Neither do I. But I think there's a useful point she was making about thinking about the way things interact / what they allow users to do, rather than programs that work fine by themselves but do not play well with others (every morning I load a bunch of stuff and watch them steal focus from each other) and implementing features because it's quite cool that you can do this thing we'll find a use for it later (yay, bloat!). "Also, where are the campaigns to make more men become school teachers and kindergarden workers?" I don't know. We should probably ought to have some, but expecting them to be provided by the tech industry is a little optimistic.