An educational website featuring a collection of innovations by women in the fields of computer science and technology.

This is nice. I didn’t know about these women, other than Grace Hopper.

Why are women so underrepresented in tech?

  • rysiek
    121·
    3 years ago

    Why are women so underrepresented in tech?

    Because tech is often a toxic bro club. There are many projects that are trying to fix this (Python is a good example), but it takes time, effort, and a lot of debating…

    • pingveno@lemmy.ml
      2·
      3 years ago

      Unfortunately, even in communities that try to be welcoming, women are extremely underrepresented. My local Rust group has only a scant number of women attending, and they rarely come to the social events after. That’s despite a concerted effort by the Rust community to set strict standards around behavior.

      • rysiek
        32·
        3 years ago

        Imagine dealing with misogyny and harassment all your life. Even when you do find a group that is safe and welcoming, it will take a while for you to trust it.

        Plus, this misogyny permeates society and the education system specifically. People are told outright “tech is for guys”, in a myriad of ways. In a way it’s just amazing that some phenomenal, strong women are able to break through this bullshit and end up doing tech stuff.

        I do hope it will get better, and welcoming, safe communities (like Rust!) make that change possible.

        (and I kind of suspect all of this is kinda obvious; if so, sorry for mansplaining 😅 )

  • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
    81·
    3 years ago

    Thought this was going to be some bait but it’s a very informative website. Thank you for sharing!

    Why are women so underrepresented in tech?

    A (bigoted) thing I noticed -

    None of the software devs I know personally who contribute to FOSS are women. Open source contributions are the most gender neutral thing I can imagine, but the women (developers) in my life just don’t seem into it.

    To be fair most men aren’t, but it provoked a thought that zero women are. It could very well suggest there’s more than sexism at play, and more to do with personality traits, than DEI trainers would lead on

    (I know there’s lots of FOSS projects, including Asahi Linux, largely pioneered by women. I even know some women online I’ve met through FOSS, the point is merely about those I know in person)

    • TheConquestOfBed@lemmy.ml
      121·
      3 years ago

      Nah, it’s not that at all. Women are just as analytic and capable of working through high level theory as men. It’s just a slog to show up to a course or lab or office and be the only girl there. Most just avoid it because they can foresee how it’s gonna go down. Getting into ‘girly’ interests feels safe before you even start because you’re guaranteed to be surrounded by women who empathize with you.

      • Amicese@lemmy.mlOP
        3·
        3 years ago

        It’s just a slog to show up to a course or lab or office and be the only girl there. Most just avoid it because they can foresee how it’s gonna go down. Getting into ‘girly’ interests feels safe before you even start because you’re guaranteed to be surrounded by women who empathize with you.

        Why does that feel so relatable?

      • angarabebesi@lemmy.ml
        01·
        3 years ago

        Why don’t women contribute to FOSS? No body knows if you are male or female unless you tell them.

        • TheConquestOfBed@lemmy.ml
          4·
          3 years ago

          Because the classes to learn programming in and the offices to get hired in are male dominated? FOSS doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it’s often contributed to by people already in tech jobs (cause people need money to live). Rust, for example, has a large contingent of devs who work for Amazon. If women aren’t getting tech jobs then we likely aren’t going to be doing FOSS on the side either. Skills take time to learn.

        • sexy_peach@feddit.de
          21·
          3 years ago

          Why are so few men kindergarten teachers? Because they’re from a young age not even told that it’s a valid option for a man. Same for women in tech.

  • TheConquestOfBed@lemmy.ml
    71·
    3 years ago

    From experience: when bigoted old dudes get to make hiring decisions, they make hiring decisions like bigoted old dudes.

    • pingveno@lemmy.ml
      7·
      3 years ago

      And let’s not just pin this on older men. I’ve seen plenty of sexist younger men, though I do feel like the younger the cohort the better they are in general.