As a woman programmer, I wish there were more of us -- regardless
of level of suck. And I don't know why there aren't. At my first
post-college job in the late 80's pretty close to 50% of the
programmers were women. At my next employer, the percentage had
dropped to around 40%. Although at a much smaller employer where
minor numerical differences can cause large percentage swings, for
the last dozen years I have often been the only woman (with never
more than two of us).
I've been part of the hiring process for new programmers several
times over those dozen years and women candidates are few & far
between and I just don't get it. I've gone to tech conferences
where the percentage of women participants hovers near 10%.
Meanwhile, many of the (lower paying but just as technical)
programming adjacent jobs, like testing, are held by women.
Over the 20+ years while the number of women programmers has
steadily declined I've run into plenty of men who
both program and suck at it. (I've only ever seen one bad
programmer fired for suck -- after he was asked why the report he
produced for auto insurance auditors in NH had no info on drivers
he responded that maybe there weren't any drivers in NH. Fail.)
Most improve with time, and it often doesn't take them that long as
long as most of their time is spent programming.
So permission to suck GRANTED. It's just a phase
to work your way through. And selfishly, the more women who do
program the less I'll look like a (lonely) talking dog.
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