Alpha male programmers aren't keeping women out

Re:Alpha male programmers aren't keeping women out by tokenadult on Monday April 27, 2009 @09:38PM (#582501)

in lieu of evidence that women are innately worse programmers, it suggests a systemic bias keeping women out

It might simply mean that women enjoy a comparative advantage

http://www.econlib.org/library/Topics/Details/comparativeadv...

at doing something else, whatever the something else is, and they are happy to live in a world in which they trade their ability to do what they do to enjoy the benefits of modern computer technology developed mostly by males.

Philip Greenspun's comments on women in science

http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science

may not be completely apropos, because programming as a career isn't exactly the same as research science as a career, but those comments illustrate that simple guesses about what the problem is just might be mistaken.

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Re:Alpha male programmers aren't keeping women out by ibsulon on Monday April 27, 2009 @11:18PM (#582621)

So, women have a comparative advantage at being teachers, nurses, and paralegals whereas men have a comparative advantage at being principals, doctors, and lawyers? This argument could very well be made in the 60s and 70s, but we would see it as the sexism it is today.

There's a woman I work with who was a programmer for years, but now works as a technical writer because she was tired of dealing with the cultural problems she had at multiple companies. I've worked with other women programmers who had to deal with bullshit that I'd never accept due to my white male privilege.

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