Re: Women Programmers, Sex, Tai Chi and Reincarnation

[cacharbe]

Sweet Jesus.

The supposition that how clean you keep your self, and what shape you're in, will have any impact on how many women are in our industry (or any technical industry for that matter) is one of the most chauvanistic, narcissitic things I've ever heard. How demeaning to women that we would think that they would want to "Join Our Club" based on how good we look.

What keeps women out of our industry is the belief by men that they aren't good enough, and it gets pushed down the line, my friend.

If you want to see more women in our industry, start teaching young women and little girls that It's okay to:

• be intelligent, ask questions, have an opinion
• To experiemnet
• To have a positive Body image
• To stand up for themselves

And, you also have to teach young men and little boys that it's okay for women to:

• be intelligent, ask questions, have an opinion
• To experiemnet
• To have a positive Body image
• To stand up for themselves

And that it's not okay to:

• Mock, discriminate
• persecute
• belittle
• abuse

women in anyway. And until that happens, there will continue to be gender casting of our children, both male and female, there will continue to be children that are abused mentally and physically and thus taught that they aren't good enough to fulfill their dreams, or have aspirations.

Yes, we are responsible for who makes up our ranks, but it is much more than our appearance, it is our mind set, it is our continued demeaning of gender, and it is sad that so few of us see it.

That just pissed me off.

C-.