NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Meet the Guys: The Jerks of Computer Science
Meet the Guys: The Jerks of Computer Science
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001058.html
A perennial question in Computer Science has nothing directly to do
with code or algorithms, and everything to do with people. To wit:
Why don't more women choose CS as a career path?
As a guy who has spent his entire professional career in CS and
related policy arenas, this skewing has been obvious to me pretty much
since day one.
It's not restricted to educational institutions and the workplace,
it's also on display at trade shows, technical conferences, and even
on social networking sites of all stripes.
And despite the efforts of major firms to draw more women into this
field with some relatively limited successes, the overall problem
still persists.
All sorts of theories have been postulated for why women tend to avoid
CS and the related computer technology fields, ranging from "different
nurturing patterns" to inept school guidance counselors.
But I suspect there's an even more basic reason, that women tend to
detect quickly and decisively.
The men of computer science and the computer industry are misogynous
jerks.
Not all of them of course. Likely not even the majority.
But enough to thoroughly poison the well.
This goes far beyond guys crudely hitting on women at conferences, or
the continuing presence of humiliating "booth babes" at trade shows.
The depth to which this pervades has been especially on painful
display on the Web over the last couple of days, relating to a very
important operating system technical discussion list.
Since I don't want this to be about individuals, we'll call the person
at the focus of this list by the label "Q" -- after the supercilious,
intelligent, arrogant, omnipotent character from the "Star Trek"
universe. Not evil per se --in fact capable of great constructive
work -- but most folks who come in contact with him are unwilling to
risk the wrath of such a powerful entity. An interesting character is
Q.
Back here in what we assume is the real world, the current controversy
was triggered when a female member of that technical discussion list
publicly criticized "Q" and what we'll politely call his "boorish"
statements on the list -- causing at least one observer to note that
it was the first time they'd seen anyone stand up to Q that way in 20
years. This woman -- by the way -- is the formal representative to
the list in question from an extremely important and major firm whose
technology is at the heart of most personal computers in use today.
The particular examples she cited were by no means the most
illustrative available -- aficionados of the list in question realize
she was showing admirable diplomatic tact.
But while reactions to her statements in the associated list thread itself can certainly be described as interesting, many of the reactions that have appeared externally in social media can only be described as vomit inducing.
I can't even repeat many of them here, but just a sampling I've seen
and/or directly received:
- "Nobody told her she had to work with Linux, get off the list!"
- "What is she, a slave? She doesn't have to be there!"
- "Q is a god! He's done so much good he can say or do anything else
he wants, he can walk across your burned corpses!"
- "People should be able to say anything they want any way they want.
If you can't take it, go somewhere else."
- "Bring her over to my house and I'll show her what bad behavior is
really about!"
- "Somebody is always going to be offended by everything, so there's
no point to even trying to be polite."
- "She's just having PMS and snapped!"
- "Hey, it's not so bad on the list, it's just good ol' boys playing
South Park! We don't want political correctness here. Tell her to
go - - - - herself, or ask me over and I'll do it for her!"
And a wide variety of other specifically crude, sexist, and toilet
humor remarks of all sorts, plus much worse.
It was getting so bad that I had to shut down comments on two
discussion threads last night before going to bed to avoid their
turning into rancid cesspools in my absence -- and I wasn't the only
one who had to take that action.
One might argue that all this isn't unique to computer science and the
broader computer industry, and you'd be correct. This kind of "boys
will be boys" sexism pervades our culture and in fact has driven many
women into refusing to even identify as female in social media or
discussion lists at all.
But the "it's not really important, and everybody's doing it anyway!"
excuse is utterly bogus.
While we may not be able to change these attitudes in the culture at
large, we can at least take steps to clean up our own house, to try
bring a basic level of civility to our own work in these regards.
But first we need to admit that the status quo is indeed unacceptable,
and many in our community's "good ol' boys club" are currently
refusing even to go that far.
The technical and policy issues we're dealing with are far too crucial
to permit them to be distorted by juvenile, sexist, and loutish
behavior that discourages maximum practicable inclusion and
participation.
And rather than acting as tacit examples of bullying that help feed
even worse abuses, leaders in our technical community should be taking
the responsibility to be examples in public -- if not of exemplary
behavior -- at least of basic politeness.
If people want to be jerks in their private lives, that's up to them.
But keep your bad behavior and sexist crap out of our work.
And that goes for you, me, Q, and everyone else as well.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
- Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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