Does Gender really matter, well does it? Can't any of you look at this stuff with a individualistic classless slant and not this elitist bullshit just because someone's a Male or female does not mean they are entitled to a free Lunch!

Fuck Gender Equality It's this Politically correct bullshit that has fucked the world right up to the point where males and females are at each others throats!

Also as a male why the Fuck does society say I have to pay for what my Grandfathers generation did? why is that? did I beat the shit out of my grandmother? Was it not dealt with back then? I'm sure it was dealt with back then! So why am I paying for something that was done Aeons ago? where has the Fair go gone to?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTAhKf91_SA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcrkNhn5V2g

I usually don't think about throats...but when I do, they're deep

This sounds so awesome. I'd be all over it if circumstances allowed it.

Best of luck to anyone doing it, would love to hear how it works out.

Not really. I'm of the tough love school of thought. If you are good, your talents should shine through and you should not need to have you hand held.

All those attempts to incite more females to join in order to look good make me gag. It's beating around the bush and not addressing underlying issues.

Male are under-represented in some professions and females in others. That's life. There are statistically observable tendencies amongst genders that make members of a particular gender more inclined to follow certain professions. We need to accept that and not try so darn hard to artificially correct it.

Instead, we need to make an effort to accept people that don't follow gender tendencies (males who go into a mostly female profession and vice versa).

If there is actual bias in the industry against female programmers, that would need addressing and we should try to address it directly instead of beating around the bush and just try to get more female programmers to enroll while thinking that will magically fix the problem,.

It's not impossible that there is gender discrimination amongst programmers as in my experience, programmers are not as socially adept as people from a lot of other professions. Honestly, all my bosses save one where programmers also and they all lacked the human touch. The best bosses I've had were when I was in the service industry.

LOL - as a female I can attest to this but that might be taken the wrong way. Srsly, why can't the world accept people as people without freaking labels of gender, color, religion etcetera, etcetera....

ALL I am saying is that the field for programming is primarily a male venue due to many factors - mostly societal factors - but hey, both males and females can program equally well. If a place opens it's doors to everyone but recognizes societal factors preventing one sector from competing and acts to encourage that sector to step up, what is wrong with that? If the position were reversed... say a blog about a father raising his kids in a fashion normally recognized as "female", would you guys be in favor or opposed? Frankly I applaud everyone that challenges societal expectations and norms because all they serve to do is hold us ALL back....

Anyway, I'm just asking you guys to consider your position in the grander scheme of humanity rather than knee-jerk commentary.

~Oh and pass along the info about Hacker School cause it's a pretty cool place~

~~ One last thing... my Stats class was filled with females! Only three males. What is up with that? Don't guys study statistics anymore?~~

Agreed. :P And +1 :)

My stats classes were dominated by females as well. Most of my maths based classes were, but I must admit it was the complete opposite for all things computing. On the first class of a specific module the lecturer scanned the hall then completely nonchalantly said "another sausagefest I see". I don't even remember his name but he will always live on in my memories as Dr Sausagefest.

On the opposite side, if I were in a class with all females. I'd be in what I would consider, the closest thing to heaven as we're going to get. :)

Fascinating. My experience was the opposite.

While the gap was not as wide as for computer sciences (where it was like 9/10 male), my maths and stats classes were about 3/5 to 2/3 male and I did take 30 credits of stats classes.

Yes, agreed on many of your points... Women could be more aggressive in their pursuit of achievement, men could also be more aggressive in pursuing the arts typically attributed to women. Each of us brings our own talents to the table but the table might be higher or more difficult to climb and those that need help with that climb deserve help - wouldn't you agree? Can men bring their talents to typically female pursuits and vice versa? Yes! Don't men deserve to be respected when they actively pursue the intimate details of raising their children in the same way women deserve to be respected for actively pursuing the protection of their country? Yes!

All I'm saying is that this is a process - not some finite thing that will be solved by anger but rather understanding and sometimes a specific boost to those attempting to climb atop the table when everything in society tells them - "Hey, that table isn't for you because you are X or Y or Z".

And I don't think giving a small (and it is very small for three months of living expenses in NYC) stipend to females in order to encourage them to enroll in an amazingly supportive environment for programmers is exactly cause for pitchforks... Srsly, you seem to have missed the point - 90% of programmers are male. Hacker School wants to be inclusive. It wants to change this percentage. Don't you think that's a good idea?

An interesting article about how women were effectively shut out of the programming field - I'm not trying to be inflammatory but history - you can't exactly deny it but you can do something about it by considering how "we", and by this I mean men and women, you and me, can change it...

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/10/computer-programming-used-to-be-womens-work/

except for me, I couldn't do art to save my life or humanity. :P

Yes, as long as we understand and accept that it won't change some statistical realities about the greater presence of certain genders for certain roles.

The goal here is not to make the ratios a perfect 50/50 in all fields, but rather not make gender minorities in various professions feel like the odd person out.

You don't need to tell me, we have state subvention-ed tuition here which paid for at least 2/3 of my university.

The distinction is that it applies to EVERYONE here. It is an inclusive benefit, not an exclusive one.

No, I think it's trying to hard to make genders the same (they aren't) and it's a divisive benefit.

Even scholarships based on high marks bug me, but not as much as this (at least, it's based on merit).

That being said, it's their money so... I tend to be up-in-arms more when the government does it with tax payers' money.

Given the current slant and my personal observation, I'd say it's more than just men keeping women out.

It's probably not the most politically correct thing to say, but I think that on average, women don't find programming as interesting as men. I'm not saying they are inferior at it, just that the interest isn't there a lot of the time.

There are obviously exceptions and women that like programming should be given the same opportunity as their male counterpart, but the reserve should also be true.

I've seen girls really clean up in those male dominated classes. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. The equivalent for males would be taking a French class.

Social stereotypes have their benefits for some ;)

I had Belinda Carlisle's song in mind when I read that, but I like yours much more.