--- On Thu, 2/19/09, patrickw <[email protected]> wrote:
> From: patrickw <[email protected]> > Subject: [The Java Posse] Re: An open letter to women Java Posse listeners > (and their coworkers) ... > To: "The Java Posse" <[email protected]> > Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 5:12 PM > > 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. > > I agree with you about stereotypes. I think that there is > an equally > broad range of thinking styles / personality types for > males and > females. There are probably as many women who would make > great > programmers as there are men, and that's the benefit - > of the > potentially great programmers we're only tapping say > 60% because most > women are excluding themselves. Raise the average > 'greatness' and the > whole industry benefits. Maybe it's true that men and women have the same range and potential, and maybe it's not. But of course there's no way we can prove anything in this forum, nor is that really the point. One thing that further clouds these types of discussions is that the issue of potential, achievement, and intellect is rather complex. The debate about what's nature and what's nurture is still hot (check out Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell for an interesting perspective on just how huge the role the environment plays in measurable achievement). Recently, a study was being discussed on the radio that attempted to show that men and women can have equal intellectual potential, but react differently to expectations. Two equally comprised groups of university students with the same average math grades, both as a whole, and for men and women individually, were picked for the experiment. Each group was given the same difficult math problem. One group was not told anything and acted as a control group. The other group was shown a fake science article stating that according a recent study, women have been found to do exceptionally well at this type of math problem. The men in the control group outperformed women, while the genders in the second group did equally well. I'll try to find a link to the source. For now, here's another study showing something similar that was published last year: http://tinyurl.com/dk8hzx (PDF). --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
