[TriLUG] The biggest deterrent for women in tech

[Brandon Van Every]

On Wed, May 1, 2013 at 4:53 PM, John Vaughters <jvaughters04 at yahoo.com>wrote:

>
>
> 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.


Because most of those world cultures dominated and subjugated women, as a
byproduct of their conditions of material production.  Now, if you want to
argue for a Cherokee model where women decide who's going to war, who's
going to die and whatnot, well that might be an interesting cultural
experiment to perform on some large segment of the world populace.  It
would make a good sci-fi episode to wave a magic wand like that.  In the
real world, women are fighting an overwhelming pattern of dominance and
subjugation all over the globe, so your claim about the near-ubiquity of
gender traits just isn't evidence of anything positive that we should be
affirming for the future.


> 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.
>

Who cares?  An accurate 70 wpm is all any programmer needs.  You get that
from owning a computer since age 11 and taking a typing class back in
junior high.


Cheers,
Brandon