Re: Women in Perl - Ada Lovelace Day

[dwm042]

I'm a little disturbed by this thread, and in particular disturbed by comments that suggest that women don't want to achieve, or that their achievment is driven by outside expectations. Some women really do want to achieve. For example:

This lady is my aunt. I don't think anyone has to hold a gun to Leta Mae Andrew's head to make her coach. Given her age, I don't think that women's activism of the kind some people find so distasteful even existed when she was making career choices.

d-

Update: fixing spacing.

[Your Mother]

I think you might be talking about some of my comments. I amended my remarks in follow ups to be gender free. For many, maybe most, young people achievements, direction, life choices are driven by outside expectations and models. And what choices can anyone make that don't involve outside information? Programming seems mysterious and magical thanks to the sombreros de culos in Hollywood. It would be nice to have it out there as an accessible, fun, bankable path. Perl to me is a way to discover how fun programming can be. If I'd rediscovered computer science through Java or even C instead of Perl I'd never have continued and I'd probably be stuck in a job I liked much less and making half as much money, at best, to boot. :)