The Rise of the Feminist Hackers: Inevitable or Unlikely?
medium.com
medium.com
But, is software development really "power"? Is it really "changing the world"? Is it really all that meaningful? This is where I start to get a bit skeptical. If we are changing the world, we certainly aren't necessarily changing the world for the better. We are not eradicating poverty, disease, or violence and abuse by writing software.
Maybe people who are looking to change the world are looking to do that in more meaningful ways, where they can actually have a real impact on real peoples lives.
Maybe there are other, more cultural reasons why the field isn't entirely flooded with women. Maybe we aren't encouraging young girls to be curious. Maybe we aren't glamourizing it with TV and movies.
Maybe it's a lot of things, and maybe a lot of things have to change before this becomes something that your average 9 year old girl will want to take on.
In the mean time, lets not pretend that women aren't changing the world in important ways already. We can do better, but don't be dismissive of women who have decided to go into medicine, or city planning, or agriculture, or astronomy, or law, or architecture, or writing, or academia. They're changing the world too, and most likely in much more meaningful and valuable ways than we are in tech.
It has to start somewhere. That's why this post was aimed at (self-professed) feminists who are maybe trying in other ways (and feeling defeated). Learn to program. It will likely help you immensely in doing the other things that can amplify your intention into the world like make a website or an app.
The bottom line is this is an issue of communication.
I did not mean to be dismissive of women working on other trades. A lot of the post is tongue-and-cheek. Rather, the intention was sort of a pragmatic roadmap: this is the best way. The most bang for your buck. Just like learning to read at one point was.
And don't get me wrong: I am not trying to glamorize programming beyond what is necessary, but to a certain extent it's power to those who maybe need it. I think it is changing the world. Working in the industry it's easy to become acclimatized, but there is a lot of good going on in the world.
Bitcoin just revolutionized money for a lot of nations that are really struggling with monetary issues. Something needed for a while. Lot's of things are happening, and there is virtually no shortage of help needed in the tech field.
Feminism is humanism.