[Edu-sig] Re: [Tutor] Girls, women and Programming (- andPython)

[Bea Fontaine]

On Wed, 2002-08-21 at 02:54, djr wrote:
 
[snip]

> I.e., The salary of the former stay at home went up while the salary
> of the person working went down in real purchasing power at least.

> Thus what you see now that both must work is simply a new equilibrium
> point far different from the 1950's one in which the person working
> was paid a certain amount because 'after all they have a family to support'.
> 
> As I said..very off topic...

I don't agree (see subject) and, since I am not in class, let me object.

The original question was, I believe, how to get girls to enjoy
programming and specifically, what to take into account when teaching
Python to females. From that arose the question of necessity vs. desire.
Over a few detours, the question came to who does what in a couple in
terms of work. There seems to be a lot of discussion inside families
going on between male programmers and female non-programmers (especially
concerning attitude towards programming), otherwise there wouldn't have
been this much constructive reaction on the issue. Mainly, however, I
had stepped in to contradict a few sweeping and, i.m.h.o. rather shallow
statements that were made on how to deal with the girl-boy issue.


*Aside*
Your comment sidesteps the real financial problem: the fact that there
is a difference between what women do and what men do and what they get
paid for it. The real problem is that single women ALSO earn less than
their male counterparts and that is also true in technology.
"Incidentally", that also creates a problem for parents without
sufficient income, but that is "only" one part of it, although one of
great impact. Same work, less money when you're a woman. THAT is the
issue. No matter how you see it, that influences the professional
choices women make quite significantly, and therefore the issue is
relevant to that of teaching girls how to program.


To bring it back to the specifics of getting girls to learn Python:
women commonly define themselves by what is useful much more than by
what is fun. That needs to be taken into account when trying to
encourage them to learn how to program. Therefore, I daresay that most
women don't care _what_ programming language they're using as long as it
_works_ better than what they expected, for instance because it is
easier to learn and apply to something useful, than another language -
or because you can use it to earn more money than before. _That_ is
something you can use as a "sales pitch" with girls, if you wish to
convince them in favour of Python.


bea






-- 

bea@webwitches.com
******************
"Women have never been wizards. It's against nature: You might as well
say that witches can be men." (Equal Rites, T. Pratchett)