News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The programmer's wife by barry-cotter on Tuesday September 01, 2009 @11:52AM (#798203)
Computers aren't that hard, but fewer women than men will find them interesting for the same reason fewer women do anything involving math, because Math is boring, things are boring, equations are boring. Using language is interesting, people are interesting, jobs that require lots of social interaction are better than jobs that don't.

Most people hate this kind of systematising, abstract, logical thought. Fewer men hate it than women so there are more men in these fields.

Re:The programmer's wife by mmt on Tuesday September 01, 2009 @07:42PM (#799152)
Any study of this you could reference?
Re:The programmer's wife by barry-cotter on Wednesday September 02, 2009 @08:58PM (#801512)
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118600577/abstrac...

"For example, in the SMPY cohorts, although more mathematically precocious males than females entered math-science careers, this does not necessarily imply a loss of talent because the women secured similar proportions of advanced degrees and high-level careers in areas more correspondent with the multidimensionality of their ability-preference pattern (e.g., administration, law, medicine, and the social sciences). By their mid-30s, the men and women appeared to be happy with their life choices and viewed themselves as equally successful (and objective measures support these subjective impressions). Given the ever-increasing importance of quantitative and scientific reasoning skills in modern cultures, when mathematically gifted individuals choose to pursue careers outside engineering and the physical sciences, it should be seen as a contribution to society, not a loss of talent."

Or just think of the sex distribution of nerdery, which is to Asperger syndrome as AS is to autism, which Simon Baron Cohen has described as an extreme version of the male brain.

Re:The programmer's wife by mmt on Tuesday September 08, 2009 @06:44PM (#812136)
I don't see the connection to hating what you described less..