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by m4x 3734 days ago
> if we want more women in programming, then let's talk about how cool it is to build stuff

I really agree with this.

Girls just don't seem to be interested in programming when they are young.

Then they go to university, and largely avoid CS because a) they haven't developed any prior interest in it and b) it is perceived as a difficult and male-dominated field.

The ones who do enrol in a CS course often struggle because it's their first foray into programming and they aren't familiar with any of the concepts, unlike many of their male peers who have done it before and cruise through all the 100 level courses

If we want to see more women in CS, get them interested at a younger age and suddenly CS will seem more appealing and they will find it just as easy as the other experienced students.

We need to show girls that programming is a good outlet for their creativity and foster their interest at a younger age

7 comments

On one hand I agree that getting women interested in CS earlier will help, but it also seems unfair for introductory CS courses to penalize people who are new to CS. One solution some schools have implemented is to have multiple entry points, so that the experienced students can start off in more advanced courses without biasing the other truly intro courses.
> it is perceived as a difficult

It is difficult. Why would that impression be problematic?

Expertise in computer science probably isn't intrinsically more difficult than any other field, like medicine which now has more women than men.
Sure. But would it make sense to get women interested in medicine by downplaying how difficult it is?
I didn't word that very clearly but I meant difficult in the "I will have to fight to get ahead because women aren't necessarily well respected by the men in CS" sense

It is also technically difficult, but if that is a turn off to a prospective student of any gender then they might not be suited for a career in software engineering

> We need to show girls that programming is a good outlet for their creativity and foster their interest at a younger age

I agree, but not just with CS, with a lot of things. Most building toys are marketed towards boys, and a lot of baking/cleaning toys are marketed to girls. These things shouldn't be gendered toys.

>Then they go to university, and largely avoid CS because a) they haven't developed any prior interest in it and b) it is perceived as a difficult and male-dominated field. I think you're forgetting a few reasons that women have mentined when asked why they left, or avoided CS: c) they are actively steered away by advisors d) they are harassed by fellow students or professors.
Fair point, and those are definitely things that we should be consciously striving to minimise

I don't think it substantially changes anything I said earlier though.

If a girl has been actively programming since a younger age, she will have enough confidence to pursue CS without seeking an advisor or her peers' approval

Scratch.MIT.edu is an amazing place where kids can make something, see it work, and share it with minimal frustration.

Yet trolling certainly exists among kids, too. If anyone's looking to make a difference, consider volunteering as a moderator or just hanging out in the scratch community and leaving positive comments.

PS: If you're a troll, seriously, disregard this. Pick on someone your own size.

In general, girls are not really encouraged to build things as part of their play. Toys marketed towards boys are definitely more oriented towards building, such as legos, model kits, and tinker toys. Adults are also less likely to build things with girls and although households have shifted away from imposing traditional gender roles on their children, toys are slow to reflect the change.
There's a very good Norwegian documentary series Hjernevask ("Brainwash") that tackles this issue in its first episode.

"Why do girls tend to go into empathizing professions and boys into systemizing professions? Why does the labor market become more gender segregated the more economic prosperity a country has?"

It's freely available online if you're interested.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hjernevask