Re:The Tech diversity story not being told (2014)
by orionblastar on Tuesday March 01, 2016 @12:31AM
(#11200952)
Personal Computers were marketed towards boys and not girls. Some like the Commodore and Atari series were video game consoles that you could also program on and cost $399 or under for the base system. Boys would buy them for the video games and then buy a tape or floppy drive to learn how to program and save their programs.
When I grew up in the 1980s, girls didn't have an interest in personal computers and video games. Didn't have an interest in Star Wars or Star Trek or other sci fi that the boys had. Over time men into those things taught their daughters how to use a personal computer and program and get into sci fi like Star Wars and Star Trek. Then once social networks came about and mobile devices more girls got into computers to use them at least.
But yes on the job training and learning is needed for diversity reasons. When women first got into computers and programming they got trained on the job. Started out punching cards, and later wrote programs with some training and on the job experience. That all changed when personal computers came out and then companies no longer hired women and trained them on the job or helped them learn at work. Boys learned in their own spare time by typing in programs from magazines and learning how to modify them during the personal computer era.
When I grew up in the 1980s, girls didn't have an interest in personal computers and video games. Didn't have an interest in Star Wars or Star Trek or other sci fi that the boys had. Over time men into those things taught their daughters how to use a personal computer and program and get into sci fi like Star Wars and Star Trek. Then once social networks came about and mobile devices more girls got into computers to use them at least.
But yes on the job training and learning is needed for diversity reasons. When women first got into computers and programming they got trained on the job. Started out punching cards, and later wrote programs with some training and on the job experience. That all changed when personal computers came out and then companies no longer hired women and trained them on the job or helped them learn at work. Boys learned in their own spare time by typing in programs from magazines and learning how to modify them during the personal computer era.