Lack of female programmers

[tech291083]

Hi,

I did try my best to teach the basics of C/C++ to my cousins in the last few years and even my own sister, who is a math nerd/geek who scores not less than 98 out of a 100 every time on school tests. But I could not encourage them to become full time programmers or have a future in IT. Although all of them are good brains and not lazy at all, what could have been the reason that they simply do not see programming as a serious occupation and something that even women can do. In the UK (forgive me if I am wrong) there is an initiave to bring more women in IT. Similar efforts are being made in India and Srilanka. Can't women be good programmers? Some folks take it as a rule that women are worse than men when it comes to sports, driving cars, doing math, but at the same time they say that they are good at multitasking. They can cook, talk on the phone, wash the clothes, watch TV at the same time. I love intelligent women, particularly ones with a lot of patience and practical thinkers. If faces are beautiful why not minds?

Do share your thoughts..............

[dmyersturnbull]

I have also noticed the lack of female programmers.
Unfortunately, it seems not specific to software development: most engineering and technical science fields suffer from this fate.

What a terrible profession I have chosen!

I do share your views and wish a higher diversity existed.

[aleph]

women programmers are few but some of them are among the most prominent programmers ever, for example Admiral Grace Hopper, and this year's Turing Award winner Barbara Liskov (http://www.ddj.com/hpc-high-performa...ting/215801518)

For anyone interested in the gender role in the programming community I recommend a story posted at the Free Software Magazine: http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/...ftware_project -- very interesting

[sej7278]

never met a female programmer, only a dba and sysadmin, they were pretty good - certainly no worse than some of the male plebs i've worked with.

i wouldn't go pushing programming as a great job though, if your sister gets 98% on any maths test then there's much better jobs than programming where you'll either get outsourced, be underpaid or be unemployable by 40.

[tech291083]

Originally Posted by aleph

Grace Hopper

Yes she did a great job an deserves all the credit. I show her picture in the early 60's in a book vaguely called history of computing. She was perhaps the only female computer programmer in the whole of IBM at that time.

Thanks for the links......

[pwca]

Look, it's as simple as this very old saying... "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him/her drink".

This saying is true no matter what subject area a person studies in college/university. In fact, there have been many studies showing that most people don't end up in a career field that they studied in college/university no matter what they're gender. (Enjoy this toon on the matter)

I think it's the very height of hubris on the part of society, men or even other women to demand that women (in general) be compelled to work in the area of study they had at college/university. To suggest or even state outright that if a woman chooses to do something contrary to what they studied is a waste of their talent or abilities is insulting, demeaning of whatever accomplishments they do make for themselves, for others and for humanity.

[tech291083]

Originally Posted by pwca

To suggest or even state outright that if a woman chooses to do something contrary to what they studied is a waste of their talent or abilities is insulting, demeaning of whatever accomplishments they do make for themselves, for others and for humanity.

Yes very true. In fact so many of us are jst not able to find work in our chose field of study. My own friend is an engineer and works as a bank manager. But he is happy and whenever I visit him at the bank he makes sure that I get a coffee free.

Women are doing a great job. We just love them.
Thanks

[tech291083]

Originally Posted by pwca

(Enjoy this toon on the matter)

Great toon, thanks..........

[nick.stumpos]

i think there are 3 female programmers in my cse graduating class. of them i would consider 2 very good. It is true we need more. I myself am starting an alice class at the local boys and girls club, to try to get kids (mostly girls) interested in computer science, as apparently the last couple of years have seen a downtrend of cs incomming freshman, and the female count is lower than ever, also wic is a great group for anyone interested.

[tech291083]

Originally Posted by nick.stumpos

I myself am starting an alice class at the local boys and girls club, to try to get kids (mostly girls) interested in computer science.

Good initiative, I wish you the very best.......

[adrianx]

That's easy.... men are "allowed" to lie on couches (sofas) or sit in chairs the whole day, while women (especially mothers) are expected to multi-task. What would the neighbours say - and even some of her female friends... "She just sits at the computer the whole day while her poor children are running wild" - That sort of thing.

Oh well, I could be wrong - that's just one of my little theories....

[ShivaS]

First of all, the ideas behind Open Source do not exist in any other field, except IT. So it's hard for people to understand why, after a day of work you're still working/developing software. And for free!!!
Second, the lack of female devs is more a social issue than a (lack of) knowledge. Women are not expected to know anything about computers, are not supposed to sit in front of the computer all day and are not supposed to be interested in computers and, clearly, are not supposed to play PC/console games. These taboos are stronger in the minds of their BFs/husbands who are not working in the IT field.
Add to all these the rest of the women daily tasks like cleaning the house, cooking, taking care of the kids and the lazy BF/husband and you'll have your answer.

[adrianx]

ShivaS - that's more or less what I tried to say, but you said it better.

[savage]

I showed my sister programming once, over 5 years ago, she had no problem grasping the concepts of it, she just didn't really click with it.

Last year I started an SCJP course, and when the material arrived, she sat and read through some of it, and she piped up "I remember these IF statements", I was impressed, she continued reading, and started getting a grasp of OO programming too, but despite her understanding she's not really interested.

She could explain to you what polymorphism, inheritance and encapsulation are though

[hephasteus]

Programming girls replace guys with small shell scripts.
Engineering girls replace guys with machines.

It's probably for the best.