Page 2 of 3 [ 36 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3  Next

kx
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

User avatar

Joined: 27 Nov 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 5

29 Nov 2013, 12:24 am

I am a woman, and I work as a programmer. I don't have a CS degree, though, so I can't say anything about sexism/discrimination in the CS courses.

Don't let the talk about sexism scare you away. If you get a reputation for caring about code and code-related subjects (which you will, because you do), then I can't imagine that you'd have any trouble.

I've always been the only women an the team at all my jobs, but it's never been a big deal (that I've noticed, anyway). I don't feel like they treated me differently. They never did any of that "there's a lady present" nonsense. Certainly there's been no blatant/overt sexism.

I would recommend staying away from the news-y/discussion places for programmers like reddit and hacker news because the comments sections are egregious whenever anything about women comes up.

Occasionally at meetups/conferences people assume that I'm somebody's girlfriend or spouse, but as soon as we're talking about code, they quickly accept that I'm there for my own reasons. A few weeks ago I gave a talk and got an email from someone saying 'I dug your talk and it doesn't hurt that you were the best looking speaker', which is creepy, but not discrimination.

I love programming more than anything else, and I wish that a lot more women realised how awesome a profession it is.



Kinme
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Apr 2012
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Posts: 4,002
Location: Spaghetti

29 Nov 2013, 6:50 am

Thank you for the info. I haven't been to Reddit or forums other than WP asking this kind of stuff, nor have I read their opinions regarding it. I have seen and heard some things about sexism in these kinds of careers, though. I'm basing it more on personal experience (if you read about seeing sexism in my last major that I wrote about). I would be seriously angry if people thought that of me. I guess they assume as much since not many women are in this field. Wow... Was he trying to get your number or something? How did you respond to it?



kx
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

User avatar

Joined: 27 Nov 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 5

29 Nov 2013, 11:25 am

> I would be seriously angry if people thought that of me.

I used to find it really frustrating, but then I decided to just focus on writing more code, and in particular contributing to Open Source. As I started feeling like I had a sneaky plan to combat it, it didn't really feel like as much of an insult.

> Wow... Was he trying to get your number or something? How did you respond to it?

I have no idea what he was trying to achieve. I basically said "thank you for your kind words about the talk" and ignored the creeper part.



Kinme
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Apr 2012
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Posts: 4,002
Location: Spaghetti

29 Nov 2013, 12:38 pm

kx wrote:
> I would be seriously angry if people thought that of me.

I used to find it really frustrating, but then I decided to just focus on writing more code, and in particular contributing to Open Source. As I started feeling like I had a sneaky plan to combat it, it didn't really feel like as much of an insult.

> Wow... Was he trying to get your number or something? How did you respond to it?

I have no idea what he was trying to achieve. I basically said "thank you for your kind words about the talk" and ignored the creeper part.


I can see why. It will take me awhile to get used to that without exploding...

Hahaha. I guess it's better to do that than look into it further... unless he took it as you were interested in getting to know him. O.o...



Tori0326
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 12 Mar 2011
Age: 52
Gender: Female
Posts: 293

30 Nov 2013, 12:40 am

My experience has been that I get a fair amount of attention in my CS classes but "flirting" wouldn't be the word I'd use to describe it. That would imply some kind of skill or intentional behavior.
I usually just get harmless nerds following me to and from class chatting incessantly about Star Trek or something else I'm not really interested in. I keep them all at arm's length so nobody gets disappointed.

As far as discrimination, if anything, I think I've experienced the opposite so far. I think a factor in being hired at my current job is because I'm somewhat of a novelty being a female programmer. Regardless, I hit the ground running so they found out fast I was the real deal.



Kinme
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Apr 2012
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Posts: 4,002
Location: Spaghetti

30 Nov 2013, 6:49 am

Why haven't you told them that you aren't interested in Star Trek? I'd change the subject.

Novelty... That makes it sound like you're one of those ridiculous toys or trinkets that people use for gag gifts. :/ I guess I'd rather have your experience than be harassed. I can't say for sure what will happen.

There are some interesting perspectives in this thread... Not really what I expected.