Debugging the problem of women in tech
women2.com
women2.com
Most people who end up being programmers are nerds. Nerds who, in their teens, spent time playing with computers instead of partying with friends and crowning the high school social pyramid.
There are many more outright nerdy high school guys than there are girls, and the nerd boys are more likely to turn to computers.
What makes someone become a nerd? Probably a combination of social aptitude and physical attractiveness in the early teens. It doesn't help that girls reach puberty much earlier than boys do. Combined with the fact that girls are easier on the eyes than boys, and that they tend to be a little more socially adept, probably leads to there being more boys than girls who have difficulties in middle and high school, and end up falling back on computers.
Lastly, the nerd guys tend to occupy themselves with things more technical than girls, for the same reason boys play with transformers action figures, while girls play with barbie dolls.
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PS: I'm no PhD in social studies, this is all conjecture and probably wrong.
Being a nerd is largely involuntary. Sure, I'd love to climb the social pyramid, but the reality is I can't. Being at the bottom has its advantages though. People don't expect me to be "normal", I can be who I am.
And because of that I've invested much of my time in, for instance, learning JavaScript, C, Python, BASIC, HTML, CSS, etc.
I've always been a geek. When I was 12 my father's coworker gave me a BASIC compiler, and I would stay inside working through introductory programming tutorials while my equally intelligent sister spent her free time with her friends. As a result, by the time I graduated high school I already had significant experience programming in BASIC, C, C++, Perl, JavaScript, and Z80 assembly language (TI-86 graphing calculators).
Now when I got to college I still had plenty to learn about the theoretical underpinnings of computer science, but one thing I noticed right away was that my six-year, passionate head start on programming gave me a massive advantage over many of my peers. The ones who lacked this advantage eventually switched majors; the ones who had it stayed... and were invariably male.
I propose that the phenomenon of so many kids entering computer science and engineering programs with years of self-taught experience under their belts has unconsciously shaped these programs to the point that they are unfriendly to anyone trying to start programming from scratch. And maybe that in itself isn't a bad thing; if CS programs can assume a certain level of experience from new students, then perhaps they can produce graduates with an even higher level of education. Generally speaking it's not gender discrimination we see in these programs, it's experience discrimination.
If we're to go searching for the cause of the gender gap in software engineering, I think we need to stop trying to assign blame to phantasms of gender discrimination in higher education – or worse, trying to just shoehorn more young women into a career path for which they are not necessarily prepared. Instead, we need to look at the social factors that lead so many more boys than girls to engage programming at a young age, and discuss what might be done about that.
http://www.netindex.com/download/allcountries/
In addition, all programming languages you would want to code in are based on English, and almost all programming documentation is in English.
So the barrier to entry for a young male Malaysian nerd who wants to get into computers is much higher. Downloading a Linux iso takes much longer and he has to be fluent in English if he wants to teach himself easily.
The act of democratizing access to hacking resources for less developed countries could result in them developing the same sort of gender gaps in tech that we have.
I think the real lesson from all of this is that programming isn't really that hard and you can learn at any age. Most technical majors people study in college, like nuclear engineering, offer little opportunity to get a head start as a kid, but people do fine. I have two friends who learned to code after college and are now working at Silicon Valley companies. If we just tell students, and women in particular, that they can catch up with enough effort then maybe things can get fixed.
You can argue that colleges aren't preparing students all you want, but it's definitely not a FACT. I was very well prepared to enter the workforce after school, as were many of my friends. I've met plenty of recent college grads that absolutely had the skills necessary to be successful developers at my former and current job. I personally think that the university level is the place that we can start solving this problem.
The problem of women in tech is a social problem. As long as there is a major imbalance, it will make women uncomfortable. Things can absolutely be done to make this environment better for women, but it also is going to take some strong women to really stand up and deal with it to start balancing the scales.
And this is why "quotas" are complete and total crap. If a school has 1000 openings for their CS program and the policy says the 500 should be women and then half of them drop out that is 250 spots that could have gone to someone else. Quotas do not allow for the most qualified/capable people to get the spots. It is a shame that these policies keep going on. I understand they were designed to combat discrimination but they just traded one bias for another.
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