From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>next question: can anybody think of any things we can do as
>trainers that might leave the women taking our classes either
>better educated or more interested [or both]?
Just continue teaching. Women don't learn differently than men, so no changes
are needed there. As with both genders, people absorb factual and abstract data
differently, so no changes there.
I've been silently following this conversation, and am wondering why fingers are
almost being pointed at the entire male population because there aren't more
women in the technological workforce. It's the individual woman who needs to
register for classes... men shouldn't be expected to do it for her.
Do I feel unfomfortable when I'm the one of the few women at a course,
conference, whatever? Not until someone brings my gender to my attention. I'm
not at class to take a gender count, to pick up dates, or even to prove that a
woman can do well in technology -- I'm there to learn. It's a completely
selfish thing.
As far as women holding positions in technology, I think women on the whole have
done very well in the 30-40 years that women have been working in the general
workforce. The "men dominate the industry" statement has been true for nearly
every known field until women's lib. How quickly can everything change in 30-40
years?
Perhaps the reason women do not seem to promote as quickly as men to higher
level positions is partially due to their employer's fears that after spending
thousands of dollars in countless months in training and other investments, the
woman is going to decide that it's time to start a family. From the employer's
perspective, this leads to a best case of a 6-10 week maternity leave with an
aftermath of excessive absenteesism, and a worst case of the employee
terminating the relationship and a "waste" of the invested resources.
Of course, there will continue to be gender prejudice, whether taught or
experienced. To say otherwise would be ignorant and prove obliviousness to the
very nature of us as humans.
So it's every person for themselves. If you want to learn, you do it. If you
want only to complain about it, that is best done while scuba diving... the fish
listen better.
From: Madeline Schnapp [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>So you are a female programmer, why do you like programming? Was your Mom
>a programmer? What kindled your interest?
I hope you don't mind, but I'll answer this one, too.
I'm not a "female programmer", I'm a programmer. I like programming because I
like to solve problems. No, my mom wasn't a programmer, nor was my father. My
interest was kindled because I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it,
regardless of my high school math scores. Programming has made me realize that
I wasn't bad at math. Rather, my teachers were bad at teaching it.
I am only a woman who is proud of her self-taught accomplishments, and who
continues to learn through a personal and obsessive ambition to simply learn as
much as she can. That other women make different choices should not reflect
itself badly on men, or on the industry as a whole. As more women grow
interested in the sciences, the male:female levels may grow more even.
I hope this reply hasn't offended anyone. If it has, my apologies.
Jasmine
