How programmers went from being "computer girls" to "computer geeks"

How programmers went from being "computer girls" to "computer geeks"(stanford.edu)

8 points by p_alexander 14 years ago | 3 comments

aidenn0 14 years ago |

"Employers seek to hire new recruits who fit the existing mold."

I don't think this is true. Where I work we pounce on people that aren't anti-social. I think that implying that any significant amount of the problem is with current hiring practices is not correct. I buy into the fact that the stereotypical computer geek turns women off from choosing the field, and even that the culture is hostile to women in general, but I've never worked at a place that was hiring based off of the anti-social nerd template. Of course I wouldn't want to work at such a place, so perhaps there's some selection bias there.

Apocryphon 14 years ago |

The idea that the development of software was less important (and less masculine), than the development of hardware persisted for many years and women continued to work as computer programmers.

This truly turns the swaggering myth of the Real Programmer on its head. The real programmer... is a girl?

asciilifeform 14 years ago |

These people were really working as human compilers, rather than programmers.

Then again, this is true of most "programming" employment today.