Hi everybody!
I'm new to this list, and have been lurking for a week or so. This is my
first post, though. I'm not a native English speaker (I'm a Swedish
speaking Finn, just like Linus :-) so please forgive me if I abuse your
language ;-)
I really enjoy reading the views on female geek issues, being a female
Linux geek myself. Whenever I try to start a women's issues conversation
with my (otherwise really cool) male geek friends, I get this really
scared oh-no-she's-going-to-go-raving-feminist-on-us look, so I'm really
happy to have found a forum for this kind of discussions.
On Wed, 3 Nov 1999, Nico Hailey wrote:
[snip]
> As far as most people, I think that many people still have ideas
> about women are better at "X" and men are better at "Y".
That's so true. And popular science magazines aren't really making it
better. Every now and then I come across headlines like "women are X" but
when I read the article, it says that 51% of the women in the test were X
while "only" 49% of the men were X. If there are any references to the
test results at all, that is. Popular science magazines cannot be bothered
with complicated phrasing like "due to socialization, it is slightly more
general that women in our society are X than that men are". That doesn't
make a good headline, so they generalize. I find this very disturbing,
since this kind of information is what reaches the general public, and
helps form the picture people have of male vs. female.
[snip]
> One of the things I admire about female-socialized geeks is that
> they've overcome and/or challenged the marginalization. Which is
> one of the reasons why I think, in our present culture, it /is/
> meaningful to have discussion lists aimed at one gender.
I definitely agree. My male geek friends are really nice to me and
consider me "one of the boys" (actual quote, though translated from
Swedish) but they just can't understand the things I go through just
because I'm female in a male field. They have (almost) always had a
reference group where they can feel "normal". They don't have to answer
the question "So what got you interested in computers?" at every
conference they attend, and when I complain about it, they don't
understand why I make a fuss over little things like that. But it's the
little things, when repeated indefinitely, that make you feel you're
different and out of place.
My point is that this kind of discussion lists are important for
addressing computer related women's issues and giving women in computer
science a chance to discuss their views without getting "trolled" or just
brushed off. But what is probably more important is that they give us a
chance to form a positive self image, and not get branded as different
and odd. We get a chance to see that there are more of us out there that
are experiencing the same kind of difficulties.
I have lots more to say, but I think I'll stop now before I get too
carried away.
Jeanette
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Jeanette Heidenberg, MSc | | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CS at Abo Akademi Uni | Does fuzzy logic tickle? | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Finland | | www.infa.abo.fi/~jeanette
************
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
