[nhangen]

If balance is required, than I suspect it will there in its own due time. There is absolutely no reason to force it.

I remember missing out on a college scholarship because I wasn't hispanic, and while I didn't let that stop me from pursuing my education, I'm still insulted by this sort of reverse discrimination.

Why is this OK?

[keemoboy]

"it will there in its own due time" is naive at best!

Those comments dinging Dev Bootcamp as "toxic" or practicing "reverse discrimination" are revealing a dangerous ignorance. Decades of sexism, racism, and systemic oppression of certain groups are not fixed in their own due time just by natural evolution or luck, they need opposing, direct, and intentional forces such as the one attempted here. I recommend if you really care about the subject to do some deeper reading of the ideology and reasons behind laws and trends towards bringing more absent representation into an industry or organization. There will always be individual instances of "injustice" while systematic oppression is being opposed, but whether you like it or not the system is still racist, even if you as an individual are not. So even though you missed out on your scholarship there are thousands of white privileges you've received without knowing or noticing that you need to own up to as well!

[nhangen]

Give me an example of this 'injustice' that you speak of? I try to convince everyone I know to become a programmer, white, black, man, woman, etc...and it doesn't matter. People gravitate to whatever they want to work on.

It's not like you minorities can't buy programming books from Barnes and Noble, or can't login to online courses and start learning.

If they don't have a computer, then we're talking strictly about affluence, and that's much different.

[roguecoder]

You have no idea what you are talking about: the research on aggressions, alienation and social dynamics in male-dominated spaces is extensive. Until you've bothered to do even basic research into a topic, I suggest you don't whine about it. It just makes you look ignorant and unpleasant.

[theevocater]

I don't know why you are getting downvoted: you are absolutely correct.

You can't just walk away and hope the problem will go away.

[theevocater]

You said it yourself: "it didn't stop me from pursuing my own education".

We do know that it is stopping women/minorities from pursuing engineering programs/jobs by way of their male dominated nature.

[nhangen]

No, actually we don't. Can you prove that, or is it just hypothesis?

[theevocater]

I'll focus on women for a moment:

http://www.commerce.gov/blog/2011/08/03/women-stem-opportuni...

http://www.esa.doc.gov/Reports/women-stem-gender-gap-innovat...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/04/women-engineers_n_1...

The proof is in the pudding: There are less women in STEM fields and in STEM programs in college. Even making the grandiose assumption that women have the exact same opportunities as men (see above, they don't) fewer women are accepted to universities, they matriculate less, and even less stay in the field. Males on the other hand seem to do just fine. This reveals to us that there is a disparity at each step of the way that is causing women to be unable to compete or desire to.

When one person drops out, it isn't a trend. But when you have industries full of this data combined with a history of sexism and racism, you don't throw your hands up in the air and say "oh the boat will right itself".

[bromang]

the obvious explanation is that women aren't as good at STEM subjects.

[bethly]

Sapna Cheryan, Andrew N. Meltzoff, Saenam Kim, Classrooms matter: The design of virtual classrooms influences gender disparities in computer science classes, Computers & Education, Volume 57, Issue 2, September 2011, Pages 1825-1835, ISSN 0360-1315, 10.1016/j.compedu.2011.02.004. Available at: http://ilabs.uw.edu/sites/default/files/Cheryan_Meltzoff_Kim...

Also: Wendy Cukier, Denise Shortt, and Irene Devine. 2002. Gender and nformation technology: implications of definitions. SIGCSE Bull. 34, 4 (December 2002), 142-148. DOI=10.1145/820127.820188 http://www.jise.org/Volume13/Pdf/007.pdf

Do you have any citations, or are you just pulling your sexism out of your ass?