Etsy Hacker Grants Support Female Programmers

samazon writes "Online retail shop Etsy announced a living-expenses grant program for women interested in attending the free Hacker School 3-month programming course. The program is hosted in various New York locations (NYU and Spotify have both hosted sessions) and not only is Etsy offering $5,000 grants to ten women who are accepted into the program, they're also hosting the summer course, and have offered enough space to double the class size to 40 students."

Comments

Re:I suppose...

[Anonymous Coward]

You are missing the point and stating it all at the same time. It's not that women have an inherent higher value - it's that men also don't have an inherent higher value. However, women are severely underrepresented and particularly so at this hacker college, and it's not because women are incapable of programming. So maybe a little encouragement will help more women attend.

Humiliation, Sexual Intimacy, the Gender War

[LionKimbro]

I think that the way to understand the visceral reactions and willfully beligerant arguments on the behalf of so many men here, is to understand the intimate violence that men, and programmers in particular, have experienced at the hand of woman. I think that a lot of men intuit that their world is "outside" the home, and that women's world is "inside" the home. Women being the masters of the inside of the home places women as the masters of the inside of the heart. Since women say "no" to men's access to their own hearts space, their most intimate and sexual feelings, men feel that they have a right, and perhaps even a duty, to own the outer world.

To put it another way: If our culture was not sexually violent, if in our culture men had loving sexual intimate relationships with women, they would have no problems with women occupying "their" space. But in a culture of sexual humiliation of men, there is no way that they are going to give up "their" territory.

Re:Sexism

[Thalia]

Actually, they don't flock to it because they would prefer not to have to put up with the sexism so prevalent in much of computer science/IT these days. Having been the only woman in a CS class, I can assure you that it's not fun. It gets even less fun when the teacher firmly believes that you cannot be a good programmer because of your gender. It doesn't help that many women do not feel safe in the computer lab at night.

If you think that tech is a meritocracy, you're not paying attention. If you think everyone has the same opportunities, and the same encouragement you do, you're not paying attention. If you think that there isn't discrimination against women, you're not paying attention.

But here is the interesting thing. In places where there are enough women, as a percentage, these things are not as problematic. And that is why encouraging women to enter the profession is a very good idea, and a self-reinforcing.

Re:Sexism

[goose-incarnated]

You felt that way because you, as a female, were brought up to believe that you deserved respect simply for existing, while men are taught from an early age that they must prove themselves. Society as it is right now is still the same way. We are taught to respect the ladies, but the men we make jabs at. You wanted respect in your class? Sorry - it isn't going to happen because respect is in short supply in the male world, and no matter what the male grouping is, even without any females in it, we are constantly reminding each other that respect has to be earned because there isn't enough to go around.

That's how humans are built, that's how we evolved - if you don't like it you are free to start your own grouping, be it small business, large business, academic institution or even your own government, where the rules are different.