Jeni's Musings

Having women in computing (or any other field) is important, because all-male organizations quickly degenerate into boys’ clubs, and boys’ clubs are terrible for their members, except for the alphas, and even more so for non-members.

Shaw said that, given the choice between the suffrage for women and 50% women in all legislative bodies, he unhesitatingly preferred the latter, and cited a case that came up before the aldermen of Dublin (he was one at the time) about public toilets for women. With zero female aldermen, the issue was treated as a joke; when one woman sat (elected by a male-only vote), the issue was suddenly a serious matter.

Furthermore, every woman discouraged by sexism from entering the field is one less mind available for the work, and we don’t have so very many competent minds that we can afford to discard any of them.