[marcusbooster]

I don't disagree that the points being made are over the top—at least at this time—but it seems like the Ruby conferences have brought this increased scrutiny upon themselves.

And you're probably right, my limited impression of the Ruby community is that they don't "give a shit". Which is why my advice is to pressure the sponsors. Misogyny is bad for business these days, who wants that kind of P.R.?

[uncle_johnny]

But the sponsors don't care and normal people don't either. The tone of these conferences is not the reason women are not more involved, if it is then it is a small piece.

Real Problem: Math, Science and Engineering are boring for women (not all women but I'm making simple points here). For that matter they are boring for most people.

Solution: Don't make them boring when kids are in grade school and high school.

The lack of women is not because of this stupid conversation this erik guy started.

[T-R]

> The tone of these conferences is not the reason women are not more involved

I'm under the impression that it is - some women have voiced objection to the tone, so we know it's at least the case for some, and we don't have any data indicating that those anecdotes aren't representative of the whole. In fact, since so few women go, those anecdotes are pretty significant.

> Math, Science and Engineering are boring for women

If that were true, it still wouldn't account for the significant difference between the number of women in CS and other STEM fields - we do, though, know that the tone of the community is the reason for some.

> Solution: Don't make them boring when kids are in grade school and high school

Certainly there are other (and more far reaching) issues, but the tone that we present as a community is one that we have more direct control over (with a very simple solution), and changing it to one that isn't perceived as hostile would have little negative impact.

[farout]

This is shit. I read in some article that 99% of the women electrical engineers quit engineering after 5 years.

As an EE, I can tell you, the work environment sucks!!!!

Yeah bitch is ok term to to refer to women. You are just too sensitive. Stop complaining about crap work - be a teamplayer. You dont' like coming out to drink with us - therefore you are not one of us. We are uncomfortable telling dirty jokes in front of you - I wish they did not hire you. You have 3.8GPA but you were hired just as a quota. You took a guy's job that needs to support with family. You complain you must be PMSing. There is essentially no seat at the table for you.

Math is a freaking language. The women I tutored in college all were told they were bad in math because they were female - and they believed the shit.

Do you know that most statisticians are 50-50 women and men? That is why I love stats. Not only was the math as easy as in engineering but there were real role models for me.

Edit: Further empirical evidence that women are not bad at math. Go to graduate programs at top rated schools, in engineering and math departments you will find a good fraction are women - I talking about 30%. Yes not 50% but much higher than undergraduate levels which are more 5-10% range.