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My question isn't clear -- a better question is, "Why do so few women want to develop software?" I think it has a lot to do with the software-development cultu

• axod 18y ago
  I disagree completely. I think women don't want to develop software because they in general like doing other things. The sexes are hard wired totally differently. How many girls spend their 13-16 years hunched over a home computer hacking away? Personally, I don't think there's any issue with the culture. It's a matter of what girls like doing, and what boys like doing. At early ages. We shouldn't try to 'fix' things that aren't broken. My daughter loves dancing dressing up and singing. My son likes playing cars and power rangers. Those aren't learnt things, they're instincts people are born with.
  • jnovek 18y ago
    I'm not certain how dancing or playing with cars is anything but cultural. I mean, aren't these products of years of culture, including the gender roles assigned to them? What makes dancing girly and cars boyish? "The sexes are hard wired totally differently." The thing is, I can get behind this statement. If you zoom out further, and say, "Boys are different from girls." you can even say, "duh". I'm pragmatic; I would accept biological evidence suggesting that men are more biologically inclined to be programmers. But how likely is it that that gap reflects the gender ratio that we see in software developers today? It's possible, but I think it's unlikely. I think that a much LARGER force is the perpetuation through behaviors like this presentation that developing software is a "boys only" club. If women want to play, they have to "man up". Creating a female-unfriendly culture is still gender discrimination, even though there's no one person doing it.
    • axod 18y ago
      Absolutely not IMHO. It's a product of evolution. Caring vs hunting etc
      • cjbos 18y ago
        How can you argue that working as a programmer is more a hunter role than a gatherer/care giver role? Lack of role models at the young age is a more likely cause imo. Who do young girls in the 12+ age group have to look up to in our industry or in pop culture? In the comedy "Big Bang Theory" about 4 male Nerds, the female lead character is the dumb blonde next door.
        • axod 18y ago
          Programming, especially at the start, is a very solitary thing usually. You sit hunched over a computer bashing out code. That really suits some people and not others - in generalities, I'd say it suits Men more than Women. Just like a hunter, you're alone, competing with several other lone programmers/hunters. I'd say roles that Women excel at in Tech are PR, design, managing communities, etc where art, communication and caring are more important. In general Women are far better at communication than men IMHO.
          • coolnewtoy 18y ago
            Writing code is an act of communication. Your code must communicate clearly to the compiler. If you're really a rock-star coder, your code should communicate clearly to the next coder who comes along and has to maintain it.
            • axod 18y ago
              That's an exact thing though. It's instructions. Map reading. It's not the same thing... Perhaps one of the reasons that there are more male coders is the same reason that in general men are better at map reading than women. Once you start stating things like this though you run the risk of people getting offended. The fact is though, men and women are very different creatures, often suited to very different jobs.
  • anigbrowl 18y ago
    We shouldn't try to 'fix' things that aren't broken. I don't know how you got into hacking, but...