Everything about this article by Stubbornella geekette, Nicole Sullivan-Haas made me feel angry, passionate and jealous. She's a very successful programmer who currently works at Yahoo! (and with a little luck will appear at the seventh Bay Area Geek Girl Dinner, hosted by Yahoo!), and in her post she describes discrimination in the coding world. She launches her eloquently poised rant by addressing the Google Scholarships that were just awarded for women in technology to attend the JSConf.
She writes:
Discrimination now rarely takes the form of some guy saying “hey little lady, shouldn’t you let a man handle that?” It is much more subtle, but just as ugly. These days, bright, thoughtful, enlightened people assume that the absence of women in certain fields results from women being unable to compete on merit. The assumption that, if someone creates a scholarship for women, it is because otherwise, women can’t hack it.
She goes on to describe how there is a culture of "coding cowboys" who assert their masculinity through proving themselves via their coding abilities, and these men create an environment that is competitive and not collaborative. She nails the average coding cowboy's personality and then juxtaposes it against a true team player who creates and fosters an environment in which everyone can learn and develop, ultimately leading to a better team and therefore a better product.
Someone even once told her "That guy only wants to work with you because he wants to sleep with you. None of your ideas are that interesting, I’m just saying, don’t get mad, it is the only possible explanation." If that isn't blatant discrimination, I don't know what is. But do men ever have to prove themselves in the tech industry? Are they not automatically assumed to be competent because of their sex? I'd like to hope not. I am not a programmer, so I don't face the same challenges. Indeed, publishing is dominated by women (except at the executive levels), but I can't help but feel angry that women are still being taken for granted as inferiors, passionate that there are women in the field who chuck the gender stereotypes of the tech industry and do what they love to do and do it well, and jealous that I never sought a path that was more integrated into tech. As it stands, I live on the outskirts of the tech world, peering in with lustful eyes, but I harbor respect and admiration for women who can not only code well, but who can also find a comfortable and competitive niche in the male-dominated industry.
A tip of the hat to you, Nicole.
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