Friday, November 7, 2014
My Sister Is a Computer Scientist
I wish that gender was not an issue in our field. I recently received an email from my younger sister, who is currently her mission. As her date to return home approaches, she has begun thinking about her future as a college student once she arrives home. My sister asked what I thought about her pursuing a degree in computer science. Among my comments, I noted the large offset between genders in the major. I talked about the fact that she might be required to defend herself, her talents, and her gender if she were to pursue this career path. I wish I could tell my sister that this field would embrace her with open arms. That she would be judged and promoted based on her abilities and unique viewpoints. That she would be seen as an individual, and not as a gender. I don't think we've reached that point. But with her help, maybe someday soon we will.
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That's a very fascinating dilemma: wanting to be able to promise things, but knowing the world is a certain way whether we want it to be or not. I think it's important for any woman to understand that at this point to be in computer science is to be a pioneer and she won't be able to escape the extra burden that comes with that. Hopefully that won't always be the case.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting, because I really don't see much discrimination against females in computer science as a whole. Sometimes you may want to ask what it was about CS that intrigued them enough to pursue the field, but that's a question just as easily posed to males who program. Have you had specific experiences yourself that you would warn your sister about?
ReplyDeleteI think that the field will still "embrace" your sister with open arms, just more because of the fact that she is a women rather than for her skills. It's interesting that employers interested in hiring from our field of computer science still hold such a primitive view on gender equality. One of our classmates posed the issue of, when offered a choice between a male and a female programmer of equal skill, employers choosing to hire the woman simply because she is a woman. Honestly, there's no such thing as two people of completely equal skill or personality or character. Hopefully employers will be able to look beyond gender and really base their decisions off of which candidate employee will work the best in their work environments and offer the best results, regardless of gender.
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