I really like this message. I wish people would stop saying 'we need more women in blah,' then instead say something like this. We really don't need more of anyone just to make the demographics look nice. Lack of a group in a field is a problem because we might be missing out on more like her, and I hate to think that.
Imagine if it was an interview "Inspiring black people in gaming". How about "Inspiring ginger people in gaming"... Or "Inspiring gays in gaming"
It's suggesting that being a woman is some sort of disability and that the person has overcome the odds and achieved something despite this. It's belittling her actual achievements.
We are obviously missing a few skilled women. We are also missing a few skilled men. If your only goal is to get the most skilled people possible, the practical question to ask, is "which group is it cheaper/easier to recruit more of?"
I hang out on IRC quite a lot, and if someone brings up the fact that they're a woman, most people are just 'meh'... it's irrelevant to how they're treated and the value they add to discussion etc. That's one of the great things about this industry - it really does not matter.
Girls and boys are very very different biologically, with extremely different strengths and weaknesses. Extremely different brains. Lets stop pretending they're the same.
Now, I believe words matter and can warp intentions over time and there is a danger of getting into a quota-for-quota's-sake mindset (as patio put it). I think that will alienate women as being somehow different from the majority of us, when they have more in common with us than with the rest of the population.
So, we kinda agree, I was trying to say what you said, but I think "we need more women in CS" is subtly and notably different. ...partially due to guys asking if they're hot or not... (bottom of thread)
Isn't that the point of trying to "make the demographics look nice?"
But maybe more is implied?
I have never really found it persuasive, personally, although I like it a lot more than the quotas-for-quotas sake rationalization. Here's my beef: people are Ruby objects, not Java objects. They can have all sorts of weird behavior added at runtime that other instances of the same class don't have.
You could, for example, monkey patch an instance of Female on the fly with acts_as_fps_developer, or have an instance of Male which responds_to develop_product_for_female_audience. Moreover, this is not weird or unexpected in any way. So why would you assume that your ability to develop_product_for_female_audience increases linearly as the number of developers who are instances of Female increases?
Instance of: it's a code smell in Ruby, it's a code smell in hiring.
(Yeah yeah, I know, Java can do dependency injection these days. It's a metaphor, deal.)
(Btw, I wasn't saying Patio's interpretation of her statement, although I see where he's coming from.)
http://www.ofb.net/~niniane/resume.html
Brief snippets from her resume:
Google:
* Founder, Lively by Google
o Created vision, got project chartered.
o Built and led a team through technical design and implementation.
o Co-inventor on 5 pending patents.
* Tech lead, Gmail Ads
Microsoft:
* Software Design Engineer Lead, Microsoft Flight Simulator
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/05/brilliant-niniane-w...
However, she left Google recently after 5 years:
I work in Japan, and am one of probably three white guys in my industry in the greater Nagoya area. (That is an exaggeration, but not much of one.) When I get introduced to someone in a professional context, almost without fail, I hear something to the effect of "Wow, you're American? I met an American once." God does that get old.
Yes, I'm an American, but I'm not here in the wow-an-American context, I am here in the valued-professional-employed-by-the-firm-you-are-in-business-with context. I suppose the appropriate remark would be "Oh, a Big Freaking Enterprise Web Apps Java programmer -- I've met one of you before!". (Now, of course, nobody will say that because it is stupid and insipid... but the original was, too, with an extra soupcon of unintentionally insulting added to the mix.)
I work with plenty of women programmers, but whooptie-doo. I think the intention of the previous comment is clearly to point to Niniane as an inspiring programmer[1], who also happens to be female. On-topic for this story, and not stigmatizing, unless you feel simply discussing female under-representation is stigmatizing.
1. well, minus Lively
Bungie is developing "Halo: ODST", to be released this year, as well "Halo: REACH" which is only at the teaser phase. Microsoft is developing their own game engine for their own Halo games.
It seems like she's recently transferred from Gearbox to Microsoft, since she references both Borderlands and Aliens: Colonial Marines.
I guess she's working on Halo: Reach