Everyone Can Code

This reading left me with a very sour taste, even if I’m a little bit hopeful for the future. The fact that the only reason women were once prominent in coding is because it was seen as easy and “secretarial” is mind-boggling to me. The only reason I say I’m hopeful is because I can’t think of any fields today in which the same happens to the same degree, which must mean that there’s finally been some real change. 

That being said, despite all attempts to get women into STEM fields, and specifically programming, I think that we still haven’t resolved the issue with the culture around computer science. It’s true that for a lot of people, their first approach or peek into programming is video games. At least for me, that’s why I started using a computer. And talking to my peers, that’s the reason most of them did as well. And that led me to start programming, and it got me interested in the field. 

This by itself causes the percentage to skew towards men by a lot, since culturally, it’s still more normal for boys to get into video games and the like. I’ve noticed that the women I study with don’t feel part of the community, or at least not as much as some of us men. I’m aware that this is mostly due to different personalities, but I can’t help but feel that sexism might have a part in it. 

As for the future, as I mentioned above, I am hopeful. Since I’ve entered college, I’ve learned and seen through younger family members that the fight to get girls interested from an early age is working, and as more and more women go into the workforce and gain positions of power, I believe the workplace culture won’t be as toxic towards them, and once that happens, they’ll be able to regain the equal footing they once had in this industry. 


Source:
Thompson, C. (2019) The Secret History of Women in Coding. The New York Times Magazine, URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/magazine/women-coding-computer-programming.html