Imagine you are a realtor. Right now you have a modest home that could use some work, but is by no means what you would call a "fixer-upper". Sure, it might need a fresh coat of paint and maybe some of the shutters need to be replaced, but these are things easily fixed.
Now, when you advertise this home to a potential buyer, are these negatives going to be your main selling point? Are you going to focus on the fact that the paint on the front banister is slightly chipping? Is your main selling point going to be the draft in the guest bedroom? Or how about the cracked tiles on the bathroom wall?
There's no way in hell a buyer will buy the listing if all you do is focus on everything that's wrong with it. If you wouldn't sell a house or a car this way, then why are doing this for tech?
Now, when you advertise this home to a potential buyer, are these negatives going to be your main selling point? Are you going to focus on the fact that the paint on the front banister is slightly chipping? Is your main selling point going to be the draft in the guest bedroom? Or how about the cracked tiles on the bathroom wall?
There's no way in hell a buyer will buy the listing if all you do is focus on everything that's wrong with it. If you wouldn't sell a house or a car this way, then why are doing this for tech?
It seems we can't go a single day without yet another article complaining about the Silicon Valley "Boy's Club" or yet another woman victimizing or martyring herself to draw attention to the tech world's sexism problem. With all the negativity, it's no wonder that girls aren't buying into the STEM fields. When all we're doing is selling them the negatives, what reason do they have to even want to become computer scientists?
Every single day, we're constantly telling these young women that the tech field is a terrible place to work. That if they work there they WILL be subject to sexism and looked down upon for their gender, they WILL be paid less, and they WILL be overlooked for promotion again and again all because of their gender. Despite all our outreach efforts and programs to get young women into CS/IT, our sensationalist approach to news and tech press is driving them further away than ever before. We focus so much on the negative, that if you asked any young girl for just one good thing about being a woman in the field, they probably wouldn't be able to provide an answer.
What we're doing is create a self-perpetuating problem. The more we advertise the tech field as this bastion of masculinity and sexism, the more that statement with become true. If we really want more girls to pursue tech interests, hobbies, and even careers, we need to start giving them reasons why the field is a good place to be rather than continuing to do the opposite. We need less articles on pointless "discrimination" lawsuits, and more on actual progress and advances in the field. We need more articles on empowered women who are actually making a difference in the field for the better, without all the drama.
And even when you are selling this house, why does it even have to be a gendered argument? Don't emphasize how all the handles in the kitchen are the perfect size for dainty female hands or how the cabinets are too tall for that average woman to reach. Gender doesn't need to be part of the discussion at all when you're making the sell. Sell it to your client as if you had no idea of their race, sex, age, sexuality, favorite color, preferred classical composer, etc. at all. If a person is so focused on their own personal identify within the field, they're not the kind of employee you want.
So to recap: if you want your daughter or sister or niece to consider computer science, don't tell her how it could be nothing but bad for her because she's a woman, tell her about all the cool things about the field itself. Focus less on the negatives and more on the positives of how great it is a be a programmer, regardless of what gender you are.
Every single day, we're constantly telling these young women that the tech field is a terrible place to work. That if they work there they WILL be subject to sexism and looked down upon for their gender, they WILL be paid less, and they WILL be overlooked for promotion again and again all because of their gender. Despite all our outreach efforts and programs to get young women into CS/IT, our sensationalist approach to news and tech press is driving them further away than ever before. We focus so much on the negative, that if you asked any young girl for just one good thing about being a woman in the field, they probably wouldn't be able to provide an answer.
What we're doing is create a self-perpetuating problem. The more we advertise the tech field as this bastion of masculinity and sexism, the more that statement with become true. If we really want more girls to pursue tech interests, hobbies, and even careers, we need to start giving them reasons why the field is a good place to be rather than continuing to do the opposite. We need less articles on pointless "discrimination" lawsuits, and more on actual progress and advances in the field. We need more articles on empowered women who are actually making a difference in the field for the better, without all the drama.
And even when you are selling this house, why does it even have to be a gendered argument? Don't emphasize how all the handles in the kitchen are the perfect size for dainty female hands or how the cabinets are too tall for that average woman to reach. Gender doesn't need to be part of the discussion at all when you're making the sell. Sell it to your client as if you had no idea of their race, sex, age, sexuality, favorite color, preferred classical composer, etc. at all. If a person is so focused on their own personal identify within the field, they're not the kind of employee you want.
So to recap: if you want your daughter or sister or niece to consider computer science, don't tell her how it could be nothing but bad for her because she's a woman, tell her about all the cool things about the field itself. Focus less on the negatives and more on the positives of how great it is a be a programmer, regardless of what gender you are.