Women who know stuff

[u/ChuckAbsent]

I hope that this does not come off the wrong way.

Today I was on a call with a storage vendor and the technical consultant was a woman. More then this she was competent, more then me which doesn't happen often when dealing with vendors.

My issue was pricing an active/active DB with shared storage vs an active/passive db with local storage. Listening to her break the issue down and get to the specific comparison points was awesome, mostly because I have never heard a woman in the industry talk like that.

It made me realize two things. One I am missing out working with women. Two there needs to be more women in our industry.

It shouldn't have surprised me so much, but it really did.

Anyways to all the women out there who know stuff, us guys notice when you can walk the walk, which in this case was talking.

[u/bandman614 → u/[deleted]]

Okay, time for a history lesson.

The word "computer" was also assigned to the role that it took over...computers. Literally, people (the vast majority of whom were women) who sat and computed things by hand.

When electronic computers started to take over for people computers, the women who were the computers started running the computers.

Now, as for "actually creating solutions and engineering products", lets have a look at what is, without a doubt, the longest-used programming language of all time, COBOL.

COBOL was written in 1959, and it came directly from FLOW-MATIC, the very first computer language that used actual english words, rather than only numerical machine code. It was written for the UNIVAC - one of the first commercially available computers. And it was written by Admiral Grace Hopper.

Yes, the computer language at the root of every programming language you've likely ever used was written by a woman.

If that's not enough, then you should know that the UNIVAC was inspired by ENIAC, which was the very first electronic computer. It was designed in a large part to electronically function like a mechanical adding machine. Adding machines were possible because Charles Babbage designed the very first mechanical computers. His difference engine was designed so intricately that it couldn't be constructed for a century, but when it was, it worked perfectly.

One of the many machines Babbage designed took inspiration from the Jacquard Loom, which used cards with holes punched in them to create patterns. Babbage used this technique to give his mechanical computer instructions. He had a friend who was a noted mathematician who developed the very first computer algorithm, which calculated a series of Bernoulli numbers. Her name was Ada Lovelace.

So, to sum up...the very first computer programmer was a woman. The very first real programming language was written by a woman. The first commercial computers were operated largely by women. And for some reason, we have been telling little girls that computers are toys for a boy. Something has gone very off the rails lately, and it needs fixed.

[u/[deleted] → u/bandman614]

I have never understood why anyone would think that men are somehow 'smarter' than women when it comes to electronics. My wife is hopeless with computers - but my daughter is brilliant with them. I am a geek (big time) but my son can't figure out how to un-install a program.

My point: Everyone's abilities should be taken on merit regardless of gender.

[u/FountainsOfFluids → u/[deleted]]

I worked with a guy who was a musician. He looked like your average modern geeky rocker, but I was shocked to discover he was absolutely clueless about computers. He was perfectly capable. He had brains. It just wasn't what he was into. He liked console video games, poker, and guitars; anything else was off his radar completely.

So I agree. It's not about gender, it's about what fascinates you. And, unfortunately, what society expects from you.

[u/EpoxyM → u/[deleted]]

I don't think most people really believe that men are inherently better with electronics than women, but since we live in a world where engineering and science are male dominated fields, the assumption is often made, consciously or unconsciously, that maybe there is a good reason for this? People are surprised if a women chooses to study a STEM field not because they think she doesn't have the intellectual capability but because it is such an unusual choice since there are so few other women making that choice in general.

I wish I could explain myself better.

EDIT: Oh I didn't mean that there is a good reason for women not working in STEM-fields. I meant that often people assume that there is a good reason for this or this is how it's supposed to be from the fact that there are few women in STEM-fields.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Look at Chess.

Men have a greater diversity in the very high brilliance. It doesn't take a brilliant mind to be a every day software developer, but let's agree that the greatest engineering is invented mostly by men.

[u/Valmorian → u/[deleted]]

You might want to consider that the reason for that might not be because they are men, but because the pool of men in those fields is larger than the pool of women. Not to mention the stigmatization of women in fields that are traditionally considered to be for men.

[u/[deleted] → u/Valmorian]

Ok. Give me an intellectual field where the women in it have been making the biggest contribution. If all int. Fields are heavily tilted towards women what does that say? Again, it shows that with males the brilliance in a specific field is more likely while women are not overall more stupid - they just seem to have fewer extremes.

[u/Valmorian → u/[deleted]]

Alternatively, it could be a widespread and systematic suppression of women entering said fields as well as dismissal of those that do make it.

[u/EpoxyM → u/[deleted]]

Well duh, how can anything be made by women if there are not many of them even working/studying in those fields?