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Google sponsors over $150k of grants for female programmers
- StefanKarpinski 13y agoWow. Congrats! This is huge.
- knackernews 13y agoThis looks like a great program that hits the right audience - people who know how to code, and will surely end up programming professionally when they're done. Unlike the many bootcamps popping up that make minority kids write toy apps and hope they'll take up computer science later. A good use of Google's money. Also, that guy has a very strange last name.
- gcb0 13y agothose bootcamps at least focused on real, contemporary, problem. by focusing on socio economic classifications... though it ended up being the regular anything-is-good-for-the-poor crap of content. this is just cheap advertisement for the sake of holier than thou. if anything it creates the "women need handicap" mentality where it didn't existed before.
- synthesizer 13y agoAnd since lady engineers usually get paid less, that money will go a long way!
- adamnemecek 13y agoYou are misunderstanding what the money is for.
- evincarofautumn 13y agoNice to see a simple story of encouragement. My peer group is fortunately pretty diverse in terms of culture and country of origin, but it misses out on a realistic distribution of sex, which I think is important as well. As a “white male programmer”, I’ve always been uncomfortable with an imbalanced group; now, being in a relationship with a female programmer, I’m exposed to a lot more of the actual iniquities. We should consider this as a high-priority bug in our industry.
- hingisundhorsa 13y agoAs a “<insert ethnicity here> <insert gender here> <insert sexual orientation here> programmer”, I've always been uncomfortable with race based or gender based or orientation based policies. Google would have been better off taking the time evaluating each participant and then making a judgement on whether that person would benefit from additional help. That would be better for everyone rather than blindly assuming every female needs assistance or every "insert ethnicity here" needs assistance.
- altero 13y agoBut they do need help. Diversity is nice, but someone still has to do the actual work.
- tomp 13y agoMany people need help. They need help because they are poor, or uneducated, or don't know anybody, but not because they are black, gay or women.
- 1qaz2wsx3edc 13y agoIt's perplexing that to avoid gender discriminations, the solution is to discriminate against genders. I don't like these, I think they further the stigmatism that is native to our industry about gender discrimination. Specifically I'm bothered by direct benefits due to gender, I have no issue with educational programs as long as they remain open to all. I don't want to end up in a workforce where people are working because it was a good financial decision from yesteryear. I want to work with people who are truly excited about what they do. And choose it for no other reason then it was: fun, interesting, and exciting. Those would be awesome people to work with. Welcome!
- ceol 13y agoIf I have ten apples, and you have five apples, giving us both five apples doesn't make us equal. Likewise, giving both men and women grants (which are readily available anyway for both genders) doesn't suddenly fix the imbalance of women. It requires a targeted solution. > I don't want to end up in a workforce where people are working because it was a good financial decision from yesteryear. Well then you're barking up the wrong tree, because there are plenty of men who got into computer science because it's lucrative. On the other hand, if you told a woman, "Hey! Want to earn an upper-middle class income? All you have to do is spend every work day of your life dealing with crude jokes at your expense, boys' club mentalities, and an industry that has little more than contempt for you!" I doubt many would jump at the opportunity. The problem with sorting by how "truly excited" they are is that some women might not know how interesting programming is to them. They were never given the opportunity, and every time they got close, they were shunned or pushed back because of their gender. If you truly, honestly cannot see these grants as anything more than "reverse gender discrimination", I'd have to say you're part of the problem.
- Lizzardhisss 13y agoAs a chick thinking about a career change towards programming, I find this very interesting...
- eru 13y agoGo for it. In the worst case, you have a secret weapon in whatever other non-coding career you are pursuing.
- psbp 13y agoNot according to a majority of commenters in the Obama coding thread.
- Lizzardhisss 13y agoWell, I'm in the gaming industry right now, so at the very least learning how to code could just fill out my skill set. I think there is a difference between pushing something like coding vs teaching or nursing. Yes, in many cases pushing people to enter those fields where there was a deficit at the time will flood them with applicants later on. However, we aren't really building many more schools or hospitals. But more and more companies need people who can code. And more and professions rely on, or at least benefit from knowing how to code. Years ago animation had nothing to do with coding, but now knowing python or action script is almost required.
- wiradikusuma 13y agoGoogle also give significantly more (+$2000) to female winners in Google Cloud Developer Challange 2013. https://www.google.com/events/gcdc2013/about.html https://www.google.com/events/gcdc2013/about.html
- knackernews 13y agoThat actually seems rather unfair. Suppose a team consisted of 3 women and one man - that would have put them in an awkward situation.
- janjongboom 13y agoI'm very surprised about this. If Google would say that teams that only consist of men, or white people would get $2K extra everyone would explode.
- coldarchon 13y agoSomehow I know some background to this. Google tried to get secondary school females to go to college for computer science or any other hard science. But they failed hard. No one was interested, they were not getting a lot of traction. One example was a $10,000 scholarship for which they received zero applications. Another was of hosting Google chats with few participants. Someone told them to give some groups projects and a deadline for a prize, expensive software to create more stuff. They skipped the first step I guess ..
- garthdog 13y agoKeep it classy guys.
- adamors 13y agoArticles like these always remind just how rampant sexism is on HN.
- knowitall 13y agoIf only these things would work so that the whining could eventually stop.
- SilkRoadie 13y agoWe need more women in the industry but I am not sure this is the way to do it. It is specifically for those "who cannot afford to live without an income during Hacker School." What does this mean exactly? To me it sounds like getting those who are poor or not well off into programming. I like that idea as much as getting more women into programming. What I don't understand is why this would be limited to women only. I have never been a fan of positive discrimination. Wouldn't it be better to advertise more to women to try to get more applicants this way? Perhaps go into local schools to rustle up a more diverse selection of people to be the next generation of programmers. Perhaps use the money to give away raspberry pi systems to the underprilliaged kids to inspire them to get going young? It is nice of Google and it seems like a decent inititive. I do feel though that the money could be used in a far more effective way.
- icecreampain 13y agoPeople explain why one would NEED more female programmers. Is it because you want a pair of tits to look at while you work or because females have some sort of magical ability to write code that no other gender can?
- xiaoma 13y agoWhat about men who have financial need? This isn't an academic question. The tech industry is one of the very few left where large numbers of men from diverse backgrounds are doing well. For many who are struggling, it's the best shot they have. Men receive less financial aid for college and graduate with more debt... if they graduate. Women now outnumber men 3 to 2 in current graduating classes in the US. Far more men than women suffer poverty and homelessness. Amazingly, it's common for shelters to refuse single men. Does Hacker School and its sponsor's "need based" help truly discriminate against the very group—poor, non-degreed men—that society treats so callously? The last thing I want to see is women being dismissed or shut out of opportunities purely out of chauvinist ignorance, but when it comes to poverty and need it's almost like our society has empathy only for women and children. Recognizing this doesn't mean becoming blind to the glass ceiling that women often hit at the high-end of the career ladder. Both are problems. This really is an issue where two wrongs don't make a right. Disclaimer: I earned well under $10k living in SF last year and faced some of this pain personally. I overcame the obstacles in my path and am now in a great situation... but I can't help but feel for those I know who aren't.
- lclarkmichalek 13y agoGiven that this is for an institution called `Hacker School`, and I have a feeling that your stats aren't P(x | studying CS), I don't really see how this is particularly relevant. The grant isn't give as part of a `help women in financial need` project, it's given as part of a `help increase the proportion of people in the tech industry who are women`.
- belorn 13y agoIf you want to increase the proportion of people in the tech industry who are women, do out reach, eliminate glass ceilings in management, and sponsor research into industry causes of gender bias. Doing gender discriminations to "counter" gender discriminations is neither a good or effective way. It's lazy, and only causes more harm.
- sanxiyn 13y ago
- mostafaberg 13y agoConsider this, what if the title was "Google sponsors over $150k of grants for male programmers" ?
- CmonDev 13y agoThen it would've been sexist. Did no one tell you being a white straight healthy male is a crime?
- dwaltrip 13y agoLife isn't fair. People are born into random circumstances outside of their control that vastly affect the quality and direction of their life. Sociey has developed in an imperfect fashion, and has many issues. These problems are complex, and there is no silver bullet. Some people are trying to create a positive impact, and hopefully make things a little better. Meanwhile, you sit here bitching about "reverse discrimination". What is your better solution?
- CmonDev 13y agoHow about "Google sponsors over $150k of grants for programmers with most open source contributions" or "Google sponsors over $150k of grants for programmers that win an online hackaton for newbies" or "Google sponsors over $150k of grants for programmers with best school grades or most impressive hobby projects"?
- dwaltrip 13y agoDon't they do many of these types of things? I highly doubt this is is their only grant. Also, how do you determine what is too much and too little to put towards a certain issue? Seems a little presumptuous.
- mostafaberg 13y agoExactly ;), that's why I'm always hiding from the world behind my screens !
- icecreampain 13y agoAs someone who hates equality and young women, I completely endorse this move. This give me yet another reason to continue viewing women as helpless victims that want to be treated like children. This will also aid me in my ongoing quest to raise questions about the real qualifications of non-white male in engineering careers: did they get the job because they're competent, or because of incompetency-compensating handouts? And since I have yet to see a new-school feminist protesting the unfair treatment of princesses, I'll continue to assume that they're all OK with the discrimination. But wait... it's not discrimination if it gives you the upper-hand, is it, new-school feminists? The old-school feminists I regularly speak to, those over 50 that fought to get from <50% to 50%, do not condone the discriminatory behaviour of new-school feminists that aren't satistifed with 50/50 but want MORE than men. So Google, please continue your discriminatory practices so that I may use it as ammunition against new-school feminists.
- willwill100 13y agoSounds pretty sexist to me
- dvanduzer 13y agoWow, a hundred and fifty thousand dollars could pay a female programmer's salary for an entire year! This sends a strong signal to the rest of Silicon Valley: there's no such thing as a Google Glass ceiling.
- donpark 13y agoCome on guys. Google is doing the right thing here which is funding what they think is right. Will they achieve the result they seek? Not likely. Will they feel good doing this? Definitely.
- voidr 13y agoI find this sexist, it discriminates against men. If it would be the other way around we would see an endless stream of blogposts on HN complaining about how sexist Google is. This right here is a good example of the damage the hypocrite feminists are doing to the industry. Programming should not be about how you were born, it should be about skills and merit.