Girls and Software
February 12, 2014 9:35 PM   Subscribe

Open source developer Susan Sons's take on gender politics in software development. "Start with a young woman who's already formed her identity. Dump her in a situation that operates on different social scripts than she's accustomed to, full of people talking about a subject she doesn't yet understand. Then tell her the community is hostile toward women and therefore doesn't have enough of them, all while showing her off like a prize poodle so you can feel good about recruiting a female. This is a recipe for failure." An interesting counterpoint to some popular notions about how to approach gender imbalance.
posted by markshroyer (7 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: hey, sorry, but this is a touchy topic that isn't really helped by a single link to a fairly inflammatory Op/Ed sort of piece that begins with "you can start flaming me now." Maybe try again with a post that explores the subject and gives people more to do than just argue about this one fight-starter opinion piece. -- taz



 
I'd be interested to see what the gender balance is in industry vs. open source. It seems to me that women are on their way back towards 30% percent in the workplace and I'm not sure they'll stop there.

Of course almost all of these women come from different cultures than the writer of the article, and perhaps don't face as much resistance.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:45 PM on February 12, 2014 [1 favorite]


I believe this is described as "fuck you I've got mine."
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 10:11 PM on February 12, 2014 [5 favorites]


Not sure I follow.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 10:17 PM on February 12, 2014 [1 favorite]


Fuck you
I've got mine
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 10:20 PM on February 12, 2014 [3 favorites]


I believe this is described as "fuck you I've got mine."

I don't get that. At all.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:22 PM on February 12, 2014 [1 favorite]


Ah, okay.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:22 PM on February 12, 2014 [1 favorite]


I think the comments have it right, overall. There's a lot of support for what she wrote. Overlapping with that are comments from people thankful for 'learn to code' type initiatives. I think that over time, a lot of the 'poodles' will fade into plain old developers. This can happen independently of the effort to channel the poodlization towards something more productive.

Interesting observation about the word 'technologist.' I tend to think of 'evangelist' being the marketing type that hasn't been a developer and the technologist being a former developer who's moved into a management or hybrid management position. I'll watch for those words more closely because they should be used consistently.
posted by michaelh at 10:34 PM on February 12, 2014 [2 favorites]


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