On Thursday, 17 March 2016 at 20:03:08 UTC, John Carter wrote:
It is very clear from the 'net that some communities welcome
woman, and some actively hate them, some ignore them.
I personally would feel reluctant to get involved in anything
where there was a high probability of vitriolic rejection.
(Yes, sadly, some 'net communities have, unfortunately, gone to
very extreme lengths in their rejection.)
I don't get this at all? I've been coming to this site for years
and I don't recall any "vitriolic rejections" of either men or
women. I can't think of a more egalitarian community than what
I've experienced here. I find this to be one of the most cordial
and helpful sites I have ever had the pleasure of visiting.
Part me says ignore them, gender has nothing to do with
programming.
Who here has ever argued otherwise?
Part of me observes we are human first, programmers second, and
human groups with a healthy gender mix are simpler more
pleasant and functional places.
Again, I doubt if anybody here disagrees with this statement.
Certainly Python has done well to actively welcome them, and I
would suggest we do the same.
How is D not welcoming "them". We welcome anybody who is
interested in D.
So a simple statement of welcome and some level of outreach
would go a long way.
https://www.gnome.org/outreachy/
Google, Intel, HP, Bloomberg, etc are sponsoring this outreach. D
does not have any such luxury.
Listen, I would love that more women were interested in
programming languages. I've seen many good women programmers (my
wife was one) but it is usually for a paid job. I doubt you'll
find many women who program out of the sheer pleasure of it, or
who will spend their free time holed up in front of a workstation
figuring out the inner working of mixins or traits.
But don't feel too bad. Females vastly outnumber men in the
veterinary and biology fields. I don't see their web sites going
out of their way to "welcome" me.
