I mean, I guess it's ok if you want to speak on behalf of your wife, but now you're just putting words in everyone's mouth. Enough already.
I strongly disagree with creating a new Constitution; we have so many people in Congress looking to take away our rights that we'd be lucky if our First Amendment rights stayed intact. Imagine members of Congress trading abortion rights for non-establishment. It would be a shit show on every level.
> That's actually a problem with things like
> "Girls Who Code" or whatever it's called:
> while getting girls coding, it also introduces
> the idea that girls don't code, and that when
> they do, it's "novel". Anyway, I don't have a
> solution for that (and I'm not opposed to those
> efforts in any way), it's just something to
> keep in mind.
I agree that in an ideal world, we would simply find the idea of "girls who code" equally weird as the idea of "girls who breathe"
But the unfortunate truth is, there is a gender gap in programming. Its very real - we all know the stats. There is a reason for this gap, and it very likely has something to do with our society, culture, and us. I don't know about you, but I'd like to find out more about what those reasons are, and if there is something I can do to change that, I would. Why not? It would be great!
The one thing I disagree about is that angry attacks or lynch mobs are a good strategy to go about this. Most male programmers are highly intelligent individuals - if the reasoning behind an idea is explained to them in a calm and logical manner, I believe they will be very likely to accept the explanation. In contrast, if the explanation or actions are interpreted as a personal attack, they may feel threatened and will be more likely to just attempt to defend themselves. Because they would be afraid of being personally accused, shamed and socially cast out.
Even ideas such as privilege blindness can be explained in this manner - articles such as [2] and [3] are good examples (I'd guess that the pattern is that a personal story is more likely to produce good results)
[1]: http://www.singlesexschools.org/evidence.html
My wife hates the Nineteenth Amendment for that exact reason: the idea that men "gave" women the right to vote (and thus, in principle, could take it away again) frustrates her.
She'd rather a new Constitution that cleans up all the fixes we've made through the amendment process that treats men, women, races, and sexual orientations all equally. It's hard to argue that wouldn't be an improvement over what we have now.
That's actually a problem with things like "Girls Who Code" or whatever it's called: while getting girls coding, it also introduces the idea that girls don't code, and that when they do, it's "novel". Anyway, I don't have a solution for that (and I'm not opposed to those efforts in any way), it's just something to keep in mind.