In the UK and the US, where programming seems to be on the decline as more and more jobs are outsourced to lower cost countries, there are few women in the field. I've been lucky to work for, and with, some very smart women but overall I'd guess that only about 10% of my colleagues across the years have been women.
This doesn't seem to be true in the countries where jobs are being outsourced to, though. Specifically my experiences are with Indian developers, where a high percentage are female. I can't say whether this is because of differences in culture, education or simply because in India programming can provide an enviable life-style. I'd guess that the last option is the correct one there, though. I've a couple of questions that might be perceived as inflammatory, but I don't mean them in a negative or inflammatory way, so please read with a charitable heart: 1. Why should current programmers care that programming is a job that has a much higher percentage of men than women? What are we missing out on? I'd like an answer other than 'Women think differently, they'd bring a different perspective', because I'm pretty sure that relational algebra works the same for everyone. I'm being harsh here, but suggestions that women think differently from men has never led to anything meaningful in my experience: it is just another stereotype-stick to beat people with. 2. With shrinking demand, wouldn't struggling to increase supply have a detrimental effect on the situation; making it a less attractive career in the long run? 3. If your concern is that women are being discriminated against, do you think it is a conscious or unconscious discrimination? Is it a systematic prejudice/stereotype that is leading to the gender disparity, and if so is there a way to combat that directly? Answering these questions might give us some insight into different ways to approach the issue. Rob Lally. 2009/2/18 Dianne Marsh <[email protected]> > > So now that I have at least SOME people's attention on the gender thing, > I'm wondering if I can engage those of you who are dads ... or uncles > ... or influential adults. One of my employees said that she was > strongly influenced into computer science by her parents. There's no > reason to limit that to moms. I bet that the dads are equally baffled > about why their daughters might not be interested in computer science. > So let's get the dads involved. > > What can you do? This is a smart group of people. Can we brainstorm a > bit? Women tend to view this as "our problem", but why? We don't have > all of the answers, just because we're women. And face it. If ALL of > the women developers worked to impact their daughters' decisions of a > profession, we STILL wouldn't make a very big dent. You GUYS, OTOH, ... > you have NUMBERS in your favor! I think that if we want to increase the > number of girls in CS (and other math/science), you're our best hope. > > BTW, this idea of getting the dads to influence their daughters was one > of my employee's. She said that she was strongly influenced by her > parents, and brought up the fact that DADS are the ones that can make > the difference in a male-dominated profession. Turns out her mom is a > software developer (and only 2 years older than me, but that makes me > wince, so we don't usually talk about that). > > So ... any chance you guys want to brainstorm a bit on how we might be > able to influence a 50/50 gender mix at the [Java?] Posse Roundup 2025? > ;-) > > Dianne > > > > Robert Fischer wrote: > > It's not just baffling to you. Women not being attracted to science, > math, and software development > > has been a huge issue since people started paying attention. But despite > huge amounts of money > > being thrown at the problem and all kinds of systems intended to > support/encourage women in that > > direction, general adoption remains low. Why that's the case is baffling > to everyone, and people's > > answers to those questions tend to have less to do with evidence and more > to do with people's > > pre-conceived paradigm on gender issues. > > > > ~~ Robert. > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
