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A comment on Women rise through the ranks of IT more rapidly than men. Parent comment

Re:Women rise through the ranks of IT more rapidly than men by jazzyk on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @03:37PM (#12687819)
There are enough camps/programs targeted at young girls, that's not the problem.

There is no institutional conspiracy to suppress women, the problem is strictly cultural:

NONE of my daughter's female friends in high school thought it was cool to take on any of the math/physics/programming classes. They were all interested in environment, film/acting, fashion, literature...

This self-selection came predominantly from mass-media/pop-culture, and also, to some extent, from their mothers, none of whom works in tech (we are talking a wealthy suburb in the northeast US here). They never encouraged their daughters to go into tech. The fathers did, but not too convincingly, either.

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Re:Women rise through the ranks of IT more rapidly than men by clifanatic on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @03:50PM (#12687947)
> NONE of my daughter's female friends in high school thought it was cool to take on any of the math/physics/programming classes.

Neither did any of the men. Not when I was in school, and not now. Being nerdy is not cool, whether you're a boy or a girl. In fact, you're more likely to get beaten up for it as a boy than as a girl.

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Re:Women rise through the ranks of IT more rapidly than men by loco5niner on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @04:01PM (#12688035)
Ummm.... I did (male). I didn't care if it was nerdy.
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Re:Women rise through the ranks of IT more rapidly than men by parennoob on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @03:41PM (#12687865)
> NONE of my daughter's female friends in high school thought it was cool to take on any of the math/physics/programming classes. They were all interested in environment, film/acting, fashion, literature (my daughter got interested into life sciences)

Popular culture in the US massively lionizes professional sports, and shames younger people who are into programming and other non-social hobbies like nobody's business.

In my opinion, if "women in tech" programs put half of their resources into solving these problems, they'd be hugely more successful. Unfortunately, that involves taking on fields other than professional programming (like television, media, and such), which they are either not ready or equipped to do.

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