[TriLUG] The biggest deterrent for women in tech

[John Vaughters]

>Interesting read on toys & gender from ny times editorial.  Seems that
>gender typing serves capitalism quite well.

>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/opinion/sunday/gender-based-toy-marketing-returns.html

Linda,
 
I am not sure I want to venture down this path, but for me across all cultures, Female and Male differences are fairly clear. I found the Lego part was fairly apparent on that as well. What bothers me is why, we as a whole, are trying so hard to make those differences disappear, when in fact those differences are what make us a better whole. Interestingly, I think the female perspective is important in the technical realm, because I have personally seen a female come into a room of heavy discussion to completely stun everyone with an obvious solution but the Gorillas did not have the point of view of the female and once pointed out with the different view, everyone agreed it was the best solution. A kind of Duh! moment for everyone. To me a team is about perspecitve and finding those that offer different skills and points of view of which Women have a strong place.
 
 IF you can find them, which brings us back to the question of Why?
 
For example, typing skills clearly on the Woman side, I wish I could type as well as most women. Don't beleive it, well just ask Barbara Blackburn at 170 words per minute with a DVORAK keyboard. Fastest keyboardist in the world. 
 
As far as my experience tells me, typing in a CLI or even a well designed Coding environrment is the fastest way to get things done. 
 
~John Vaughters