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Girls-Only Computer Camps Formed At Behest of Top Google, Facebook Execs
theodp writes: Reporting on Google exec Susan Wojcicki's appearance at DreamForce, Inc.'s Tess Townsend writes: "The YouTube CEO said her daughter had stated point-blank that she did not like computers, so Wojcicki enrolled her in a computer camp. The camp made her daughter dislike tech even more. Wojcicki reported her daughter came back saying, 'Everyone in the class was a boy and nobody was like me and now I hate computers even more.' So, mom called the camp and spoke to the CEO, asking that the camp be made more welcoming to girls" (video). Fortune reported last July that it was the urging of Wojcicki and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg that prompted iD Tech Camps — which Wojcicki's and Sandberg's kids had attended — to spin off a girls-only chain of tech camps called Alexa Cafe, which was trialed in the Bay Area in 2014 and expanded to nine locations in 2015. Earlier this month, Fortune noted that Wojcicki's daughter attended the $949-a-week Alexa Cafe summer camp at Palo Alto High, which was coincidentally hosted in the multi-million dollar Media Center (video) that was built thanks to the efforts of Wojcicki's mother Esther (a long-time Paly journalism teacher) and partially furnished and equipped by sister Anne (23andMe CEO) and ex-brother-in-law Sergey Brin's charitable foundation.
Segregation is the answer. Sometimes groups need a space where they can be away from the things that are giving them problems, with the goal of later re-integration. The idea is to help girls get started with CS in an environment where it won't be seen as a "boy's" thing or where there won't be pressure from ignorant parents and even teachers pushing them away from it. It sounds pretty basic but when questioned a lot of girls say that parents and teachers told them computers were not a girl's thing, so by having classes for girls it makes it a girls thing and allows them to participate.
Before someone says it's sexist, it's not. It doesn't disadvantage boys, it merely helps girls get past some issues they face.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Up next, white only bathrooms, and asian only programing camps.
Straw man. I said in this particular instance it makes sense, just like it makes sense to have segregated bathrooms and locker rooms for men and women, but not for race.
See how this argument is slightly more complex than a binary segregation = good | bad?
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Maybe patronising and stereotyping women is not the best way to encourage them to read your tech news site...
Maybe not spewing anger and denial at every story about women in tech might be a good start though.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I'm fine with that. There are men's only clubs, like Augusta National golf club.
That's different. There is no good reason for a golf club to be men only, because men are not disadvantaged by the presence of women. It does disadvantage women though, especially since a lot of business happens at golf clubs.
Can you understand why one is a problem and one isn't? How having a girl's only CS club benefits everyone and disadvantages no-one, but you can't say the same for a men only golf club?
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC