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by easytiger 4625 days ago
When the article tries to deal with Lovelace:

> Ada Lovelace was coding in a time when few men did

Really? Even such an obtuse statement indicates a complete ignorance of what she did weakening further any point they have to make. Not helped by the fact they have not indicated the IT interests and acomplishments of the girl whom is the subject of the article. Some of the worst (Male) employees we have ever hired as developers had either 1st class BEng or even PhD level qualifications. Degree programs in IT in the UK are approaching worthless for the most part.

This article is infuriating, a complete abomination and demonstrative of everything which is wrong with the approach to girls in technology. The topic is now approaching a level of dullness that makes me wonder if anything will ever change.

Issues with the articles assume external factors actively opressing the abilities of girls. Abilities cannot be suppressed. They can only fail to exploit them in the light of other social roadblocks. There is no indication of any understanding in the article as to why girls don't pursue jobs in STEM. There is an inferrence that a patriarchy is responsible and is actively seeking their exclusion. Applications of statistics in this area fail to illuminate but at all any useful causal link. The reason being polical correctness refuses people\ who might be willing to propose logical reasons for the gap an audience due to the refusal to listen to what is perceived as mysogeny.

How many women are there in other industries who have to, on a daily basis, do highly competative problem solving. There are plenty in Science and Humanities PhD positions. How does that differ from seeking actively problem solving roles in IT?

I'm so fed up with the whole thing.

2 comments

You employed IT grads? I haven't seen one for years. Or do you mean that you've employed CS grads only to find out their IT skills are poor?
Apologies, I meant CS of course.
"Applications of statistics in this area fail to illuminate but at all any useful causal link." - if you're relying on statistics to show things in this area you're missing the complexity of the situation which a more interpretative account may be able to find meaning in. Statistics is not the be all and end all.

You may be bored/fed up/whatever by it but many women (and men) in tech aren't - and nor should we be. It's a highly socially constructed issue that is endemic in our society and not present in others. If you think it's about suppressing ability then you obviously have absolutely no idea about the challenges of getting women into tech.

if you're relying on statistics to show things in this area you're missing the complexity of the situation which a more interpretative account may be able to find meaning in. Statistics is not the be all and end all.

Sounds a lot like "that A/B test didn't give the results I wanted so lets try again with a higher p-value cutoff and fewer controls."

Not at all - I think a qualitative approach may be able to illustrate the problem better because you can get more complexity from deeper questioning.