Female programmers wear sweater and thick glasses

Female programmers wear a sweater and thick glasses. With what, besides algorithms, do IT?

From the translator: most of all I would like to put this text (written, by the way, by a girl) into humor. But as a person who regularly sees around him an overwhelming number of smart and beautiful programmers, I have forced myself not to do it by strong-willed efforts. This article is a look at the well-known stereotype from the female side. Although the author poorly distinguishes between the concepts of "programmer" and "IT-specialist," it makes sense to read and is quite funny.

Information technology cannot be left to men. They are too important. To do this, you do not need to change the thoughts of women, it is enough to change the attitude towards programmers of those who have nothing to do with IT. Bab to computers!

In our attitude to programmers, we’ll go back almost two centuries ago, when it didn’t surprise anyone that in 1837 the English mathematician and computer scientist Ada Lovelace wrote the program for the first analytical instrument, the computer prototype. Back in the 60s, articles about the latest machines that were served by young ladies appeared everywhere in the American press. And they were not neglected, divorced from the life of women. Just look at the article from Cosmopolitan:
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An article in the "Cosmopolitan" of the 60s, telling about Ann Richardson, a programmer

Stereotypes, however, turned out to be stronger than the thirst for women to conquer the world of exact sciences. This thesis is advanced by Anna Pekarska, a second-year student at the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Warsaw, the first winner in 16 years of individual programming competitions organized by the University of Wroclaw.
- I think that the universal conviction prevails that women are not very good in exact sciences. Parents inspire girls that mathematics and computer science are not for them, says Anna. “I didn’t have such a problem; my mother studied exact sciences,” she adds.


A bit of rap about a programmer girl

What a luck! After all, Anna Pekarskaya is the hope not only of female programmers, but also of all information technologies. In addition to winning the Wroclaw University competition, it can boast of the finals of the international Top Coder Open competition in the USA. At the Lyceum, she was a laureate of three computer science competitions, immediately after graduation she received a gold medal at the Central European Computer Science Olympiad, and a silver medal at the International Computer Science Olympiad. Maybe that's why Anna's friends from the university were not surprised by her victory. Although the winner herself thinks differently:
- We simply know each other well. We know who has what level, she says.

But the case of Anna is an exception. When in the classroom of computer science at school the boys do the task incorrectly, they simply correct it. The girl, in addition to a bad mark, also receives a free sermon.
- Even in high school I happened to hear from teachers that I should go to the nurses, if such trivial tasks give me problems. This is nothing that I was going to rewrite the test with the majority of my “male” class, ”says Magena, a student of IT at the Mining and Metallurgical Academy in Krakow.

The TV is also to blame. “Smart girls will never find a boyfriend for themselves”, “Guys are interested in beautiful, but not smart girls” - such messages constantly bombard us with the media, films and sweet pop songs. This is a myth. Just as women prefer retrosexual men (pl) now , so men do not want to have already smoothed pupae.

On stereotypes and employers come across. In large corporations, there is still a conviction that only a man is able to donate his free time for programming, but they forget that women are better organized and their intuition works better when communicating with clients.

There are those who have noticed it. Every fourth IT-director position in the European Union is held by a woman. 40 percent of Polish schoolgirls call computer science the most favorite subject in school. In the world of women, programmers create a furor. In April, CNN created the ranking of the most influential women in the IT industry. The list did not take long to extort. Sandy Carter, IBM's vice president responsible for community initiatives, business in social media and good customer service, won a well-deserved first place. Women also hold high positions in Intel, Xerox, Facebook and Google.

The most influential women of the IT world, according to CNN rating

1. Sandy Carter, Vice President of IBM
2. Jane Moran, CIO at Thompson Reuters
3. Susie Wee, Cisco Systems Vice President
4. Sher Wong, co-founder of HTC
5. Judy Estrin, President of JLabs
6. Deborah Estrin, UCLA Professor
7. Maxine Fassberg, Intel Israel Security Officer
8. Ursula Burns, Managing Xerox
9. Sheryl Sandberg, COO on Facebook
10. Marissa Mayer, associated with Google Locals and Google Maps, now works at Walmart

At times, a university diploma and skills to the boss and colleagues are not enough:
- I received easier tasks, as if the authorities did not believe that I could cope. In the end, I won my own - now they perceive me on a par with colleagues, ”says Ada, 30, who writes software for small businesses.

This is another stereotype, refuted by research. According to the CISCO report in 2009, the level of knowledge and skills in IT for both sexes is about the same.

Very specific myths are circulating about IT that add up to the whole story. Asocial fat men with long, greasy hair that is locked in its claustrophobic room to program day and night. After a few days of fun with algorithms, only empty Coke cans remain. Are programmers crammed in sweaters? Yes, from where ?!

Of course, there are fans of décolleté blouses, such as Adele Goldberg, with whom Steve Jobs copied most of the ideas from the ideal computer. But at the same time, Hollywood movie star Hadi Lamarr, dressed up with pearls and lace, created a frequency switching system. Pamela Fox, working with Google and EatDifferent, surprised by the change of hairstyles. Red color is true to Jerry Ellsworth, creator of games for Commodore 64. And none of these women wore glasses!


"Women can also program"
There are no shortages in not too funny jokes about programmers.

Despite this, programmers are an incessant theme for jokes (- What is the difference between an IT girl in pants and an IT girl wearing a skirt? - Access time!), Mocking songs, unpleasant memes. Jokes truth all the more pussy:
- I heard a couple. These are all old jokes, says Anna Pekarskaya, and they were never directed in my direction.

Although still not as good as it should be. According to a study by the Main Statistical Office of Poland, only 10% of students at IT-related faculties are girls (as far as I know, about 8% ago, there were already 25% of them at the Moscow Medical University). But there is a spark of hope. Within 5 years in technical colleges the number of girls increased by as much as 14 thousand. Investors already know that a girl in an IT-related position is a good choice. More and more companies are noticing that it is better to have a specialist in their team, rather than an IT specialist.
- A woman IT specialist is already surprising only those who are not sitting in this industry. There are more of us, both in firms and universities, - says Anna Pekarskaya.

So that it was next!