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Can we not just say 'people'? I'm a programmer, and I'm male, but I'm not a male programmer. They're entirely separate things. My programming is completely and
by codeoclock 13y ago
Can we not just say 'people'? I'm a programmer, and I'm male, but I'm not a male programmer. They're entirely separate things. My programming is completely and utterly unrelated to my gender. I work with lots of other fantastic minds, and their gender couldn't make less of a difference to their skills. You don't have to be a certain gender to do a certain thing - isn't that the whole message of equality?
- kyberias 13y agoI don't understand. How can you discuss gender issues without referring to genders?
- britta 13y agoUnfortunately trying to have this attitude ignores the real-life differences in people's attitudes toward women and men programmers. For example, even if you are very careful to treat all programmers fairly, there are still many other people who would look at a woman programmer and automatically have doubts about her competency and look for errors in her work, since they have a mental model of women not being good at programming, while the same person may look at a male programmer and see him as normal and probably competent unless he shows otherwise. That mental model is partially related to the mythology and stories that we tell about ourselves, and this article is a thought experiment in seeing how it feels to glorify women's participation in the way that we glorify men's participation. If you're interested in learning about this, here is a list of some experiences that are different for women and men programmers: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Male_Programmer_Privilege_Checklist http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Male_Programmer_Privilege... - not all items apply to all people, but that it conveys an understanding of differences that happen.