[aristus]

Because of my name I get occasional contacts from journalists who write for magazines with names like "Latino Business" and "Technology California Latino". At first I felt the same as you, but one of the journalists explained it to me quite well:

The point is not to mindlessly cheerlead because a person has some attribute, whether it's two X chromosomes, or a last name ending in a vowel, etc. The point is to aggregate the accomplishments of people with that attribute, so they don't always feel so damned alone.

My wife was working at a large tech company on an automated translation system. She needed some more native Spanish speakers to help vet the output. The call went out to the regular employees, thousands of people, and she got nothing. Hindi, Chinese, OK. But no Spanish. She ended up going down to the cafeteria (!) and asking the workers there to help out.

Maybe, someday, a woman programmer will be as unremarkable as a woman lawyer. Until then, well, keep remarking on it.

[juliehache]

"The point is not to mindlessly cheerlead because a person has some attribute, whether it's two X chromosomes, or a last name ending in a vowel, etc."

Well said! Every time I show up at a tech event and someone shouts "Yay! There's a girl here!", it just makes me want to leave.

[shrub]

I am rather apprehensive about something of the opposite effect. I'm a chick and I'll be attending Google I/O this year . It'll be my first tech conference. I looked at the pictures from last year and it appears men are the majority by a long shot. Trouble is, I'm a sufficiently plain looking chick that I imagine it'll be "There's a girl... aw." Maybe this sort of apprehension is part of the issue for women in tech. Maybe it comes from those awful "Hottest Geek Girl" articles the "booth babes" or such. Not only am I not as geeky and successful as them, but by comparison I look like a stick recently fetched out of a swamp, even on good days. sigh

[Mz]

I am not sure what your complaint is. But, fwiw, being beautiful is not all up side. I was raped at age twelve and given the message it was my fault for being too beautiful to resist. I am 47 and have a serious health issue. I am not as pretty as I once was. It has been a relief to go more unnoticed.

[MartinCron]

Every time I show up at a tech event and someone shouts "Yay! There's a girl here!", it just makes me want to leave.

That's good to know. I'll stop doing that. Sorry.

[ClHans]

I'd upvote you a thousand times if I could. You've just modeled the kind of humility and maturity that can actually make the world a better place. Thank you for this..it hasn't gone unnoticed.

[timc3]

I understand and I feel that its such a pity really, as it should be a level playing field