I was told multiple times girls are just not good nor interested by people who knew I plan to study computer science. Had I not met teacher in school who showed me interesting parts and treated me realy equally, I would have no idea it can be potentially something for me.
If you would be a guy who work in kindergaden and knit for hobby, your theories about gender not matering would hold something. You have systematically picked occupations that have no risk in feminizing you nor has "but women do it naturally better" element of.
P.S.: it's funny but I knitted. My aunt taught me and I knitted a scarf. It rolled up and became a tube, and I lost interest after that fail. :-)
I have to agree: if you like something, you just do it. But I guess a lot of people just can't bear to do anything without getting approval from their social circle first.
I'd like to see a source on a paper that finds evidence that supports this theory.
As far as I know all the gender study department grant money thrown at this has not been able to produce data to convincingly affirm that hypothesis.
There's plenty of men, I believe, who would be interested in working with little children, but who avoid those professions because of the social stigma. It's sensible to avoid a profession if you think you're going to have a very hard time gaining employment in it, or will suffer a lot socially for it (many people seem to think such men are pedophiles).
But we're talking here about people learning something out of personal interest. You don't need anyone's approval to learn programming, nor many other things. But many things do require more resources to learn; aircraft piloting for instance. You're not going to ever do that for free, though you can learn some of it with a software simulator fairly cheaply. Sailing is another that comes to mind; that's pretty impossible to learn I think without having an actual sailboat. But programming is comparatively easy; all you need is a computer and internet connection, which these days are considered cheap and ubiquitous. The software is all free; you can download absolutely everything you need, including an OS. There's an absolute plethora of websites and forums to go to to learn more (e.g. StackExchange). The barrier to entry is ridiculously low. But you do need time, and personal interest and drive. Now maybe you'll have some trouble gaining employment after you've learned it, esp. since you don't have a college degree in a related field, but that's another subject. The original article here was about someone already working in programming, who didn't bother to learn another language.
That's funny how people with US/Canada/EU citizenship and English as first language and western culture as first culture, love to seek excuses.
"I, personally, learned C++, being in the army at 20 something years old, with night shifts (for which I had incredible energy being 20 something years old, living for $150 a month (because I didn't have any kids), etc..."
I think you see where I'm going with this.
These days my girlfriend limits my coding time because apparently adults are supposed to, like, be adults. I'm often late for work, where my main job is coding, because I'm solving a fun coding puzzle of my own in the morning and lose track of time.
Yes, I'm weird. My point is that if you enjoy something, you'll find time to do it. If you don't, you won't. and that's okay
Those I know who're the most successful at software will train themselves, and will look for the opportunities to do that; you don't need the company to train you, you just need them to give you [pay you for] the time to learn.
On the other hand, this moves it from "a small matter of work/life balance" to "a small matter of office politics"...
but on the gripping hand, it does make sense that this difference in attitude is such a differentiator.
I'm 41 now, have two kids and wife, and still work at nights, exploring python/ML stuff and writing my own OS X app for interactive plotting [shameless plug removed].
I can't understand that. Modern programming is not like engineering nuclear reactors or driving mars rovers. All you need to learn is a cheap laptop, mediocre internet connection and passion to learn it.
Just apt-get python/R/whatever and start writing simple things, then more and more complicated, then your own projects (make your own home automated, after all), and after a year you'll be able to find an entry-level dev job.
> bought a book on Java but the life of the poor is hard, and erratic bus driving schedules coupled with living paycheck-to-paycheck makes learning programming hard, especially without a decent computer.
Oh cmon. It's the same bs as "girls don't become programmers, because of males/stigma/gender-language". If you have interest in programming, you'll learn it, and won't stop at some "it's enough for resume" level. I, personally, learned C++, being in army, with night shifts, drills, living for $150 a month, just because I loved it and used every hour of my spare time to explore it.