[TriLUG] The biggest deterrent for women in tech

[Brandon Van Every]

On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 4:03 PM, John Vaughters <jvaughters04 at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Women have no lack of opportunity to join these ranks, so why?
>

A leading theory is they're bullied out of technical areas from a fairly
early age, so by the time one picks a career, it's long since settled that
it won't be a technical one.  It's hard, if not impossible, to play
catch-up.

For comparison, I've been programming since I was 11, and I'm self-taught
for most of it.  I did have some college courses, and I didn't go to
college thinking I would study Computer Science.  Thought I was going to
study physics, lasers, and holography.  Ended up majoring in Sociocultural
Anthropology.  Took almost enough computer courses for a double major, then
taught myself 3d computer graphics after college.

If social approval is a factor in what people decide to do... well, I never
had any.  Almost nobody taught kids computers in the early 80s.  My parents
didn't have a clue; computers weren't "educational advantages" for people's
children yet.  I learned to program from a computer, a manual, and a
magazine.  I got my computer "privileges" taken away fairly often for
playing "too many" computer games.  Nobody thought of that as interrupting
the proto-career of a garage game developer; "children must have exercise
and sunshine."  They have to play baseball like my father did.  I think
attitudes are different now, and we've got the whole internet to look out
for young hackers.  Sometimes I see really young kids showing up on the
programming forums, learning the ropes.  But the girls?  Don't remember
seeing any.

Yep, pretty much evolved as a programming loner.  No help, no shared
experience.  Didn't get any good role models in CS until I was a Junior in
college and had already declared my anthro major.  Those CS guys were such
geeks.  My 3d graphics prof was cool and that's what set me on the road to
an actual career.  Had a really good *woman* database prof my senior year,
when I was looking to remediate my programming skills before graduating.
 If only the gals could have had her as the role model.  I think she partly
made me realize you didn't have to be a creep to do computers.  My 3d prof
had already made me realize you didn't have to be a conformist; he was
actually an Architecture guy, one of the early pioneers in the 3d field.
 So I totally get the "lack of role models in CS" argument.  Luckily I had
a couple.

But I also had some inherent interest in the subject, even at age 10.  I
can't imagine going into CS if that isn't part of one's basic makeup.  I
certainly don't like *everything* about computers.  In fact the tech
fetishes of most of my peers make me cringe.  But there definitely are some
things under the hood that I care about and find interesting.  I just don't
relish *all* of it, not by a long shot, and people who are easily amused by
all of it kind of make me sick.  Like, aren't they the ones just making my
life as a programmer hard?


> Is it easier to find other paths to success?
>

I guess we'd need to do a broader study of "Women in Everything."


> One thing I have noticed working with Indian Tech Support teams, they
> probably have a much better ratio than we do. Some of those tech teams were
> 40% women if not more.
>
>

I remember reading some paper that the gender disparity was specific to
North American and European, i.e. Western countries.


Cheers,
Brandon