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by mctavjb9
5824 days ago
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I'm all for women hackers/entrepreneurs self-organizing on an informal level and comparing notes, but I must confess that I have the same visceral reaction to women-only hacker spaces that I did to girls-only math classes when I was in 6th grade. Whatever floats your boat, but I've always believed that it shouldn't be about lacking a Y chromosome, it should be about doing the hacking/learning the math. I may be in the minority of the minority, but I would much prefer to build my business surrounded by people with a diversity of perspectives who could provide flashes of insight that would never occur to me as a typical INTJ scientist (although not a typical 30-something female, clearly). Narcissistic nutcases-- there are plenty of both genders-- are a fact of life. I believe that the status quo is not going to evolve much through anything that can be construed by naysayers as affirmative action. Rather, women with technical and/or entrepreneurial aspirations need to get over themselves, stop being so concerned about peer pressure or what anybody else will think, do what they love, and prove to others that it can be done. Laura Finton, founder of oneforty and a Tech Stars grad is a great example. She started her company as a single mom with young kids as a solo founder with no programming skills. Even though I'm not a Twitter person at all, I take my hat off to her. She's taking the time to tell her story to the Boston entrepreneurial community and leading by example. |
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I don't think it's that simple though. For a majority change, positive feedback is required along the lifecyle from knowing nothing to loving it and having entrepreneurial aspirations. I think the main problem is the mostly invisible peer pressure to do something else - not the peer pressure to not do something. This is why more female role models are needed and more tech-oriented schooling from a young age and more gender neutral literature, etc.