[TUHS] Women in computing
Toby Thain
toby at telegraphics.com.au
Fri Feb 15 08:22:24 AEST 2019
On 2019-02-14 3:37 PM, Jon Steinhart wrote:
> Deborah Scherrer writes:
>> There have been several studies. As I remember, girls in school do
>> indeed receive as much encouragement in computers as do males. And
>> girls do indeed have access to as many resources as males. So the
>> studies came to no conclusions.
>>
>> My personal thought is that, in high school, it's the "nerd" factor. If
>> I were back in high school and saw the kind of guys that are getting
>> into computers now, I would stay a thousand miles away from them and
>> that field. But, alas, I don't think anyone has tried to research that
>> idea...
>>
>> And/or: I have a friend who was a professor of CS in Amsterdam. She had
>> many grad students of both sexes. She says she had to practically force
>> the women to stay in the field. They would see the guys getting overly
>> focused on the computer details themselves, completely overlooking the
>> goals of the project. The women would get frustrated and complain to
>> the professor. She would have to convince them that the guys just did
>> that, and that the women should stay on track.
>>
>> I do admit, I have a husband who does that. Personally, I have ALWAYS
>> looked at computers as a tool to accomplish something grander than just
>> being a computer. But I am usually out-shouted. ;-)
>
> I think that many of us old folk on this list started out in a time when
> getting a computer to be a computer was an accomplishment. But I agree
> that enough of that has been done that using computers as tools subservient
> to larger goals is where the bulk of the work exists today.
>
> There's a theory that sounds superficially plausible to me, which is that
> women leave the field because they're more responsible than men. The theory
I was REALLY hoping gender essentialism wouldn't be enlisted in this
thread. Oh well.
> is that women think more about whether a profession will provide them with
> the security and stability necessary to support a family. ...
>
> Jon
>
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