Python is an Equal Opportunity Programming Language

[beliavsky at aol.com]

On Friday, May 6, 2016 at 5:07:28 PM UTC-4, Ethan Furman wrote:
> On 05/06/2016 01:35 PM, beliavsky--- via Python-list wrote:
> 
> > Most of [Guido's] keynote at that conference was answering questions from
>  > the people who had attended. And he actually said, "Let's alternate 
> between
>  > men and women asking questions."On the second day of the conference, 
> he was
>  > wearing a shirt from PyLadies, another nonprofit like Django Girls 
> that helps
>  > women learn how to program on Python.
> >
> > *********************************************************
> >
> > This not "equal opportunity". It is a quota system.
> 
> It's a corrective action, a way of getting men accustomed to listening 
> to women and hearing good ideas and questions from them, and a way to 
> accustom women to speaking in (currently) male dominated groups.

It's silly to say that just because a group is over-represented that it "dominates". If a conference has more Asians than whites does that necessarily make it Asian-dominated?
 
> And it is far more equal opportunity than having 25 males ask questions 
> and only one or two females.

Not if there are 25 males with questions and only one or two females with questions. Among the people who have questions, you could choose randomly. You and Terry Reedy misuse the term "equal opportunity".