Article:  |
Charming Pythonistas | |
| Subject: | Dumbing it down for the ladies | |
| Date: | 2007-09-12 08:43:06 | |
| From: | dieselkat | |
| As a female principal software engineer, I find this article offensive and derisive towards women. The overall message here is "let's dumb things down for the ladies", which only serves to re-inforce the stereotype that females are less technically competent than males. Hmm... sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy to me! | ||
Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.
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Dumbing it down for the ladies
2007-09-13 09:40:11 jpk01 [View]
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Dumbing it down for the ladies
2007-09-13 07:41:26 Anna Martelli Ravenscroft |
[View]
Unfortunately, factors such as low self-efficacy, loner stereotypes, and the belief in CS as both difficult and not widely useful, are well-documented barriers to women entering IT. I've made some suggestions on how to address those factors. I'm sorry that you consider addressing them as "dumbing it down for the ladies".
We have to ask, though, what's the final goal - to educate students or to inflate ego?
A while back, after having been in the s/w industry for 5 years, I took a Data Structures class just for kicks. The class was based on C++. I did fairly well because I'd had many years of C++ experience, but many of the students were struggling with (and dropped out of the class due to) basic C++ syntax. Granted, this should have been mastered in previous classes, but I don't think one semester is adequate to do so.
The same prof is currently teaching the course using Python. I may have to drop him a line to see how he's doing...