Why PyLadies?

Heh. Well, on the bright side, I've brought together 85 women that were not part of any open source or Python community before.

I think trait-looking-explore-<hobby/profession> groups will always exist. It's easier to bond with strangers when you have 2 things in common instead of 1, all else equal.

I am not saying tech doesn't have gender discrimination. There are plenty of blog posts out there that say otherwise. I just don't take post as an indicator of such.

The group being form here is trying to encourage women to participate. This does not mean it is a response to gender discrimination. In particular, just because a field is predominantly Y does not mean X are discriminated against.

There's nothing wrong with an underrepresented group trying to attract other members of the same demographic to create a sense of community. Just like there's nothing wrong with being underrepresented.

The experience of those who are not just minorities, but even more so is unique and hard to understand. I'm not sure if it has terminology, so I'll call it "hyper-minority." Not only is a "hyper-minority" outnumbered, there are so few of them, in many contexts there is no minority community to fall back on, or even if there is, it's so small, its presence can often not be felt. Being a hyper-minority has many of the visibility drawbacks of being a celebrity, minus the personal fame and some of the benefits. Where I grew up, it was so predominantly white, the family had to drive 50 miles to visit other Asian friends, who weren't even in the same ethnic group. While there are more women in programming than before, there are still times and places where a woman can feel like a hyper-minority. Being defined by how you look, or some other external signal, instead of what you can do and what you know is a significant barrier. It's like a cuckoo that can eat up all of the energy and nourishment that should be going to growing genuine working relationships.

I'm actually being placed on the other side of the fence here, I don't have a clue what "gender discrimination" looks like in the broader tech world, all I know is that in my company, the techies are equal in numbers, male and female (thought not of course by design.)

I find it sad that I often see a great group of people and a group which I would absolutely love being able to join, but that it is exclusively for women, is this really how we want to solve a perceived gender discrimination? By creating another one which leans the other way?

So often politics of gender, race, sexuality, etc. seems to over shadow what these groups should really be about, which is bringing people together to learn and have fun experiences. Men and women can have these fun experiences together, we don't need to invite purely men or women, imagine the backlash if "blokes who code" had a male only tech group.

It's very easy to play the "under-represented" card, but the fact of the matter is this: women in the U.S. ever so slightly out number men. There is absolutely nothing stopping women joining in with the tech industry, there is no law, no patriarchy standing in their way, the only thing stopping a woman from joining the tech industry is herself.

I am a woman. I have been in plenty of groups which are mostly female. If there is a single male, he tends to become the central figure with the most social influence. Women will turn into backstabbing bitches to compete for who gets to align themselves with the sole male.

I do not engage in such behavior. Commenting on its existence tends to not go over well with anyone, male or female. I have often been the sole woman willing to stand up to such a man in a largely female group. It is a great way to make enemies all around.

I am sure there are complex social reasons for such patterns. This is probably not the time or place to discuss it. I am only trying to suggest that a good reason to have some "ladies only" groups is because of the way a lot of women behave around men, not because of the way men behave around women or because "men are all sexist pigs".

If this works for some women to help them have a healthier relationship to their career goals, I think it's a good thing.

Thanks!!

It would be so cool to have campus groups. I'll bring that up to the other organizers. There are a handful of students who already come to the Portland group. We should figure out some ways of capturing the imagination of more students.

:) I removed it, increased the font size and purged the cache.

Thanks for the question.

I will bring this up with all PyLadies - but for my part, yes! We don't have a global charter, so I will seek clarification on this and express my opinion.

The wording that I have tried to use is "primarily woman-identified" or "not primarily male-identified". If you have better wording suggestions, please share!

Are you talking about the PyLadies site itself? I'm not a color expert, but it seems to be mostly red and white.

My site's theme is predominantly blue. I hadn't really thought about my color choices until just now.

Fixed! Thanks.