What bothered me about this article were quotes like this:
"Still, she found it 'really intimidating' when men used terms she didn't know and talked about complicated programs they wrote in their free time."
I remember those kids in college who spent their weekends working on their own programs too. I wasn't one (and I'm male). I love my software job, but I find that it usually fulfills my creative programming drive.
Anyway, my point is that there are both women AND men who are (academically) intimidated by the uber-geeks in college. It's not like all guys in CS spend every waking hour breathing Dew and Pizza in front of the linux box. Pinpointing this "intimidation" as something that chases only women away seems shallow.
To borrow a page from Adbusters, go sit in front of your TV but don't turn it on. Sit there for an hour looking at it. If the first idea through your head is "that's nonsense, I'm not going to do nothing for a whole hour"...well what do you think you'd be doing if it was on?
That's nice, but I can make the exact same argument about reading (stare at a closed book for an hour), using a computer (stare at a blank monitor), listening to music (ever stare at a CD?), or just about anything.
TV is like pretty much everything in life. Use common sense, don't over-do it, be selective.
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"Still, she found it 'really intimidating' when men used terms she didn't know and talked about complicated programs they wrote in their free time."
I remember those kids in college who spent their weekends working on their own programs too. I wasn't one (and I'm male). I love my software job, but I find that it usually fulfills my creative programming drive.
Anyway, my point is that there are both women AND men who are (academically) intimidated by the uber-geeks in college. It's not like all guys in CS spend every waking hour breathing Dew and Pizza in front of the linux box. Pinpointing this "intimidation" as something that chases only women away seems shallow.