I did a CS degree in the mid 90's. I was one of 3 women who graduated out of a class of 60-odd. Most girls dropped out in the first year but to be perfectly honest it was because the CS major course was deadly dull. I wanted to do research in CS so I stayed.
The course I attended was a complete dirge until the final year when the active research staff began feeding material into the optional modules. Suddenly it came alive. These people were passionate about what they were doing and were literally changing the world. This along with the opportunity to design, develop and manage a research-based project of my own and I was hooked. I went straight into a PhD and loved every minute of it. The people I worked with were great. I was treated royally. Interestingly there was higher proportion of females to males at PhD level.
I subsequently lectured at a couple of institutions hoping to encourage more women into the field. I had a little success but to be honest, until we get some more challenging and creative CS programmes girls are going to continue to stay away in droves.
There are too few women in the system to affect the required change - and there is one less since I quit (academic politics - yawnsville!!)
In the mid 90's I asked my hubby-to-be for an IBM Thinkpad instead of an engagement ring. This pre-nuptual gift helped me to complete my CS degree, which has in turn provided us with a good living.
Sod diamonds. This girl's best friend is a beautiful man.
Oh - I can die a happy woman. I've seen the word vagina on Slashdot!
I've been in the IT sector now for 14 years and have encounted far too few women. It should be getting better, but I've identified elsewhere where I think the problem lies. Personally I've thoroughly enjoyed working with many very smart and creative male colleagues, who've treated me with respect and have generally been delightful to work with. Our different ways of thinking are highly complementary. The industry can only benefit from increasing diversity.
Dr_Bliss xx
p.s. Negative generalisations about any identifiable group is lazy thinking. I comfort myself with the knowledge that unless the few hostile individuals responsible can discover a way to gestate their offspring in a box, their lazy thinking will die with them:)
Let me get my point out of the way so everyone in a hurry can move on - girls don't like coding competitions. They like coding. They are competitive. But competitive Linux programming? I dont think so.
So what do girls like?
Well, over here in Blighty, there are loads of lovely male nurses, but not so many female CS graduates. I'm one of the few - doctored and an ex-CS Lecturer - and can report that undergraduate CS programmes aren't designed with girls' minds in mind There aren't enough women involved in course design and it looks like this is going to remain the case for some time.
No matter. Snuggle up. I want to talk to you about evolution, the birds and the bees.
We girls are wired differently (you knew that already). There are whole sections of our brains dedicated to spotting men who'll make good fathers for our children. Other bits are reserved for looking good/ hair and shoes and stuff. And then there's the house and social life to organise. Load this up with all the modern aspirations (sporty car, career, good salary, pets, sports, hobbies, exotic travel, etc). Phew!! No room left in there for competitive programming!:)
Amongst our social brain soup however, women have a long tradition of coding and have been designing, sharing and modifying domestic codes (weaving/ knitting/ stitching patterns, recipes etc) for hundreds of years. With these, then hard-wired, code-based traditions in mind Ada Lovelace conceived the first computer programming language. We've still got the wiring, and technology has reached a point where we've now also got the motivation.
Lots of women are naturally good at many of the things directly relevant to the evolution of Web 2.0 (I'm sorry, I hate the term too).
We understand and maintain complex, extended social networks (thats the social bit brain)
We'll work hard to make something look good (thats the vanity bit)
We'll work hard to make stuff easy for others to learn and use (this is the nurturing bit)
We're pathological consumers - give us interesting things to spend our money on, now!
In addition:
We're good at communicating ideas (boyfriends may disagree)
We're aspirational - we want good pay, status, respect and are prepared to work hard for it
We love technology - LOVE IT!
We can ALWAYS see a way to make/ do something better (there's our competitiveness)
And so, finally back to Gnome's competitive programming.
There are girls who understand and use the computer coding systems/ the languages and rules. Generally-speaking, though, girls don't have that need to be admired as programmers.
We're wired to seek out good fathers for our children, both biological and technological.
Slashdot Mirror
Einstein he may not be, but the author of the Time Cube holds some great patents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Ray
I did a CS degree in the mid 90's. I was one of 3 women who graduated out of a class of 60-odd. Most girls dropped out in the first year but to be perfectly honest it was because the CS major course was deadly dull. I wanted to do research in CS so I stayed.
The course I attended was a complete dirge until the final year when the active research staff began feeding material into the optional modules. Suddenly it came alive. These people were passionate about what they were doing and were literally changing the world. This along with the opportunity to design, develop and manage a research-based project of my own and I was hooked. I went straight into a PhD and loved every minute of it. The people I worked with were great. I was treated royally. Interestingly there was higher proportion of females to males at PhD level.
I subsequently lectured at a couple of institutions hoping to encourage more women into the field. I had a little success but to be honest, until we get some more challenging and creative CS programmes girls are going to continue to stay away in droves.
There are too few women in the system to affect the required change - and there is one less since I quit (academic politics - yawnsville!!)
In the mid 90's I asked my hubby-to-be for an IBM Thinkpad instead of an engagement ring. This pre-nuptual gift helped me to complete my CS degree, which has in turn provided us with a good living.
Sod diamonds. This girl's best friend is a beautiful man.
Oh - I can die a happy woman. I've seen the word vagina on Slashdot!
I've been in the IT sector now for 14 years and have encounted far too few women. It should be getting better, but I've identified elsewhere where I think the problem lies. Personally I've thoroughly enjoyed working with many very smart and creative male colleagues, who've treated me with respect and have generally been delightful to work with. Our different ways of thinking are highly complementary. The industry can only benefit from increasing diversity.
Dr_Bliss xx
p.s. Negative generalisations about any identifiable group is lazy thinking. I comfort myself with the knowledge that unless the few hostile individuals responsible can discover a way to gestate their offspring in a box, their lazy thinking will die with them :)
Let me get my point out of the way so everyone in a hurry can move on - girls don't like coding competitions. They like coding. They are competitive. But competitive Linux programming? I dont think so.
So what do girls like?
Well, over here in Blighty, there are loads of lovely male nurses, but not so many female CS graduates. I'm one of the few - doctored and an ex-CS Lecturer - and can report that undergraduate CS programmes aren't designed with girls' minds in mind There aren't enough women involved in course design and it looks like this is going to remain the case for some time.
No matter. Snuggle up. I want to talk to you about evolution, the birds and the bees.
We girls are wired differently (you knew that already). There are whole sections of our brains dedicated to spotting men who'll make good fathers for our children. Other bits are reserved for looking good/ hair and shoes and stuff. And then there's the house and social life to organise. Load this up with all the modern aspirations (sporty car, career, good salary, pets, sports, hobbies, exotic travel, etc). Phew!! No room left in there for competitive programming! :)
Amongst our social brain soup however, women have a long tradition of coding and have been designing, sharing and modifying domestic codes (weaving/ knitting/ stitching patterns, recipes etc) for hundreds of years. With these, then hard-wired, code-based traditions in mind Ada Lovelace conceived the first computer programming language. We've still got the wiring, and technology has reached a point where we've now also got the motivation.
Lots of women are naturally good at many of the things directly relevant to the evolution of Web 2.0 (I'm sorry, I hate the term too).
In addition:
And so, finally back to Gnome's competitive programming.
There are girls who understand and use the computer coding systems/ the languages and rules. Generally-speaking, though, girls don't have that need to be admired as programmers.
We're wired to seek out good fathers for our children, both biological and technological.
Dr_Bliss xxx