The Programming Women’s Dress Code | Hacker News Reader

The Programming Women’s Dress Code

dustyreagan.com

69 pointsdustyreagan25 comments

>But, with the exception of a rare few, it seems that neither male nor female programmers give a rat’s ass about fashion.

Being what this post would refer to as a "programming woman", I can attest to this. And I think this is one of the primary reasons I (and other women I know in the computer industry) got drawn into computers - no one cares what you look like or where you're from. Heck, most people in your industry might not even see you physically. You don't have to dress up (if you do, that's totally fine). That's just crazy cool for an introverted nerd.

>But, with the exception of a rare few, it seems that neither male nor female programmers give a rat’s ass about fashion.

Fantastic. My sister got on my case about not dressing up or, as she called it, 'showing off my body'. You're only young once, she said.

Which, I said, is why I don't want to waste my time thinking about clothes when I'd rather program. Sure, I occasionally like dressing up, but I really could care less about whether my outfits are new and original each day.

Also, nothing is more insulting than going to a programming meeting, throwing in my 2 cents, and having a guy come up to me afterwards only to comment on my earrings.

Wow, Steve Jobs even stole the black turtleneck look from Adele Goldberg!

Exactly my thoughts! ... Not happy with getting the ideas from xerox, he also got the looks to sell them.

Well, stole might be too strong a word. Erm, I guess you could say he xerox'd her look.

I see what you did there.

"But, with the exception of a rare few, it seems that neither male nor female programmers give a rat’s ass about fashion"

Yup. In the end, nobody can tell whether or not you were wearing a pinstripe suit when they examine your most recent commit.

I always make sure to leave little details like that in my comments. ;-)

//Feb 08, 2010 - Rewrote the XML parser to use a proper SAX API - Suit.

//Feb 9, 2010 - Refactored the lexer code - T-shirt and jeans.

//Feb 12, 2010 - Rewrote much of module b to remove extra loops to make it more efficient , added security features to the web front-end, solved the halting problem - Naked

The halting problem isn't open to be solved. It would have been funnier to claim to have solved an open problem (maybe P=NP?) so as not to break the willful suspension of disbelief.

> So, what have we learned about the woman programmer’s dress code? Unlike the men’s dress code, beards are not in fashion

Thank goodness!

Shafi is a mathematician/computer scientist, and Jepsen and Ellsworth are not programmers - they are engineers!

Go engineers! Our wrists hurt less!

Jeri Ellsworth also appears to wear reasonably fashionable garb - http://www.downloads.reactivemicro.com/Public/Users/Henry_Co... looks almost high-fashion (couture) and http://www.techlifemashup.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/jer... doesn't look unfashionable.

I don't think the distinction between engineer and programmer is incredibly meaningful unless we're discussing

1. People with professional qualifications (I mean licensed engineers, ie Canada/UK)

2. You're comparing 'engineers' against blub Java coders

(In which case I'd agree, they're not engineers)

I actually dislike the job-title engineer. Programmer would be fine.

But that's because I come from a country where that word has a meaning.

Between this article and the men's one, Ada Lovelace definitely wins the best dressed contest.

Indeed.

As a point of interest Ada Lovelace was Byron's only legitimate child, but he is known to be father of one other, and presumed (with varying degrees of certainty) father of two more.

Shafi, is my Dissertation Advisor's Advisor. That makes her my Grand Advisor or something like that in Academic terms.

I like this quote "I can’t even begin to understand what this means in English, but it sounds impressive doesn’t it?", this is pretty much what I get whenever I try to explain to people what my PhD is in... ha.

> Fine Victorian era gowns are in

Sweet. I've always wanted an excuse to wear one.

My office had the usual dress causal atmosphere until one day our new manager decided to make his mark by having dress up Wednesdays. So I decided to wear a formal complete with gloves(glad to know Ada did it too). I was the belle of the ball. I no longer work there but the guys have continued the tradition in my honor and dress in tales and top hats. :)

Grace Hopper is famous for something other than programming. I can't remember where, but I have seen her being quoted in a political article about strategy. I wish I had jotted it down.

Any military/polysci types able to shed some light on this?

Do you see it here? I don't see anything about strategy specifically. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper

Great post!

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