The difference between supporting an opinion and recognizing that its author has a right to it, is critical to constructive dialogue. You have a right to your opinion, as does Mad4Life. I don''t necessarily agree with either of you - I never stated my own opinions on women, and don''t need to (it''s irrelevant).

I apologize for calling you a boor. Feel better now? Now quit playing this righteous anger shit and get back to the real discussion.

It is a well-known fact that males and females produce different quantities of different hormones. It is also a well-known fact that many of these hormones affect the brain. Testosterone increases agressiveness, among other things. Excesses of estrogen, among other things, leads to irritable behavior. So our brains do work a little differently.

But my first reaction was to say that none of this has anything to do with the fact that there are so few female coders. I thought, "It's just a cultural thing. Girls aren't encouraged to do this kind of thing; boys are."

Then I started to think a little more. I realized that in all world cultures, ancient and modern, that I can think of, men have been the builders, the engineers, and the mathematicians. I find it hard to believe that the fact that just about all cultures evolved in the same way in this aspect is just coincidence. I think that there really may be a biological component to the reason women are such a minority in the field.

But I'm not sure.

And I still think there is a strong cultural component to the reason, whatever it is, that there are so few female coders. Ada Lovelace, for one, and the guy failing out of Remedial Math 1 at your local high school (there's always at least one!), for another, don't seem to fit the "biological" mold.

Edited by - TerranFury on September 21, 2001 8:01:15 PM

>>>>>>Felisandria....
To be honest I have trouble focusing as well, because there''s just so darn much interesting stuff out there. I play 7 instruments, do every handcraft known to man, was into martial arts before I hurt myself, and listing all the topics of interest that I read about on a regular basis would take far too long. Suffice it to say that it''s everything from medieval weaponry to current cultures around the world.
>>>>>>

Heh, I''m not saying male programmers don''t have hobbies or other commitments! I know I do. Felisandria were you ever close to choosing something other then programming?

"So much fun, so little time."
~Michael Sikora

They may not be interested because of the way they think or they don''t want others to think badly of them. It is not as bad for guys to like video games so it is also not as bad for them to like computers. This comes from the way America is. It is worse or better in other countries. Let''s not try to do unnatural mandated social reworking or killing parents. Let''s just praise the women who were strong enough to go past it and be all they could be. Besides, if I was a home economics major, I would not complain about there not being enough guys in it.

Girls think that if they were in to computers they would be labled as computer nerds. But if they dressed really cool and play in a punk band that would make them seem more cool, so they could still be in to computer without being labled a geek.
yeah rudy2 I know what you mean about being a home economics major cuz dat wud be dope to have class with all those girls. uh huh

Edited by - rudy on September 22, 2001 1:56:38 AM