A bit about Ada Lovelace Day

[The_WHHAAAMMMM_Burgler]

There is always more on the net than is expected. I was initially made aware of Ada Lovelace Day via a trackback (kai.mactane.org/blog/2011/01/24/ada-lovelace-day-is-not-enough/) on one of my blog posts (whamburgled.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/and-people-wonder-why-there-are-so-few-women-in-linux-and-open-source-simon-howard/).


findingada.com/about/

“Ada Lovelace Day, the international day of blogging (videologging, podcasting, comic drawing etc.!) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science, is now over for 2010.”

It would seem that I had missed much of the movement though.

blog.findingada.com/blog/2010/03/25/thank-you/

I find it disgusting that women were and still are constantly overlooked in matters of science and technology. Especially in the FOSS/FLOSS/OSS/[insert new acronym here] communities where this is standard procedure coupled with harassment. It is of my unprofessional opinion that a negative correlation exists between the amount of women involved in technological fields and the influence of RMS and other sexually dangerous individuals in such communities.

[Dragon Zachski]

Derpy derp, them wimmins only good fer pro...procr...makin' babies! *juts chin out, nods*

I hate people.

[The_L]

Part of the problem is lack of exposure of girls to things that would make them interested in programming. To wit:

Most children are first exposed to computers through games, especially educational games. For a variety of reasons, children's computer games aimed at girls tend to be of poor quality and/or the same shallow Barbie-esque shit we're inundated with by the rest of the media. The message tends to be, "Girls can do anything, but if you want anyone to like you, you'd better waste your time caring more about boys, horses, and looking pretty."

When there's little encouragement from those around you, and a dearth of female role models in your chosen profession, it's very difficult to feel motivated to pursue that profession. Not to mention that it takes a particular mindset to be halfway decent at computer programming anyway. I used to think of programming, not as mathematics, but as "the language you use to talk to computers and tell them what to do." In other words, I fallaciously assumed it was analogous to human language, and as a result, I failed miserably at programming. I can't be the only person out there who's made that mistake.

The ability to program requires a personality type that is deliberately being forced out of women by our culture. Little girls are told, not to work diligently and persevere the way boys are, but to be pretty pretty princesses so that other people will do things for them. Parents and teachers can counteract this cultural meme somewhat, but it's an uphill battle.