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That's not our fault, that's merely a product of the fact that hackathons are mostly guys. If it were mostly girls and only a couple guys, then the reverse would happen when guys showed up.

We shouldn't have to pretend that it's not weird for the one girl who shows up to what was an all-guys event. We should figure out how to get the gender ratio closer to even in the first place so that it's not a big deal when girls show up - no pretending necessary.

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Oh, don't get me wrong--I agree. It's not their fault that women at hackathons are genuinely uncommon, and they're not bad people for acknowledging this (though I would argue that they shouldn't gawk and draw undue attention to them, and this is admittedly a fine line to walk). But by the same token, it's not her fault either that that's the case. It feeds an unpleasant vicious cycle.

It's a good example of the fact that it's very hard for people from an underrepresented group to break into something that's traditionally not "their field". I feel a lot of respect for the ones who are brave enough to be among the first ones (and who aren't naturally the sort who enjoy the extra attention they get, be it positive or negative--which I'm going to guess from this post that the OP is not).

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