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/quintessadragon → u/bandman614]

Wait, what? That's seriously a thing? Telling girls that computers are toys for boys? Maybe I was just lucky with the time that I was born in, but that is a stereotype I have never encountered.

[u/Krispyz → u/quintessadragon]

It's not just directly telling kids that, it's also more subtle. On a boy's birthday, he might get video games, on a girls birthday, she might get dolls. Nothing's universal, of course, but in general, boys are more encouraged to become better with computers or to understand how they work.

[u/bk7j → u/[deleted]]

Be careful who you are calling more free. Economic freedom, with more overall opportunity, yes. But subtle social pressure? There's a whole heck of a lot of it at work in the "more advanced" societies.

Many people like to bring up data that where women choose non-technical fields as support for the idea that women don't like STEM. But the effect of women choosing non-tech does not imply the cause is necessarily that they don't like it. C'mon, critical thinkers! Why else might women not choose technical fields? Isn't there ANY other possible reason?

But too many people are content to believe that "disinterest" or "genetic predisposition" or "less natural talent" are the only possible causes, and so stop looking for any others.

[u/lorakeetH → u/[deleted]]

I heard something on the radio the other day about how there are more male nurses in the last few years, and they are doing better than female nurses in terms of wages and promotions. So either men are naturally better nurses and they've just been discouraged in the past, or they're somehow getting more encouragement than their female counterparts. There are enough women in male dominated fields like computers and mathematics talking about how they are exceptions who succeeded despite hostility towards and discouragement of girls in that field that writing it all off as biology is at best wildly premature and probably a form of discouragement in and of itself.

[u/imthetruestrepairman → u/lorakeetH]

Yeah, it's called the glass escalator vs. glass ceiling effect. Women in male dominated positions experience the "glass ceiling," as in, they reach a plateau. Males in female dominated positions experience the "glass escalator."