women these days
Lately a couple things have troubled me in terms of the semantics used by organizations or writers with regards to feminism.
Firstly, a commercial for the United States Girl Scouts, which is an organization that can have a big imapct for girls/women nationwide. In this commercial, it talks about the benefits of joining, specifically the skills a young girl would learn. The skills listed - Business, marketing and one other I can't remember the moment. While there isn't anything particularly wrong with these fields, why not Science? Why not computer engineering?
Secondly, Tech firms sign up for best practices for women, my own company included. This line -"The signing of this Code of Best Practices is a first step towards making high-tech jobs cool for girls and getting more women into the ICT sector. ". Why use the words "cool for girls". Why not "interesting" or enticing" Why does tech have be something "cool" for girls to enjoy it. (And I don't mind saying things are "cool", but here, it seems a little "let's dumb it down for the girls!")
I participate regularly in "Women in technology" events, and the vast majority of the women in attendence are not devleopers, programmers, or engineers, so I would absolutely like to see an uptick in these fields for women. But general society really needs to stop using a "Let's bake some cookies for the boys" angle on it.
Firstly, a commercial for the United States Girl Scouts, which is an organization that can have a big imapct for girls/women nationwide. In this commercial, it talks about the benefits of joining, specifically the skills a young girl would learn. The skills listed - Business, marketing and one other I can't remember the moment. While there isn't anything particularly wrong with these fields, why not Science? Why not computer engineering?
Secondly, Tech firms sign up for best practices for women, my own company included. This line -"The signing of this Code of Best Practices is a first step towards making high-tech jobs cool for girls and getting more women into the ICT sector. ". Why use the words "cool for girls". Why not "interesting" or enticing" Why does tech have be something "cool" for girls to enjoy it. (And I don't mind saying things are "cool", but here, it seems a little "let's dumb it down for the girls!")
I participate regularly in "Women in technology" events, and the vast majority of the women in attendence are not devleopers, programmers, or engineers, so I would absolutely like to see an uptick in these fields for women. But general society really needs to stop using a "Let's bake some cookies for the boys" angle on it.