“Where are the lady geeks?” asks Fast Company blogger Jeffrey To. Over the course of six months, he attended dozens of hackathons, and found that women were sorely underrepresented.
To writes:
Like the IT industry in general, hackathons tend to be male-dominated. By some estimates, the male-to-female ratio at hackathons could be as high as 15-to-1, without exaggeration.
To has divided geeks into ten types: The Religious Geek, The Hardware Geek, The Geek Who Sold Out, The Rebel Geek, The Design Snob Geek, The “Offspring of the Tiger Mother” Geek, The Movie/Literary Geek, The Euro Geek, The Hardcore Geek and the Rocker Geek. In other words, there’s something for everyone.
To jokingly/seriously mentions possibly creating PimpDatGeek.com — a site which would “match lady-geeks and dude-geeks.” But above and beyond dating, it’s important to question why women — who, it could be argued, use computers, video games, cell phones and iPods just as much as men do — are such a minority at these tech events. Is it tied to the way math and science is taught to girls at an early age? Is it because women interested in hacking aren’t encouraged to participate? Or is it because — as with any other field —breaking into a boys’ club is always a tough undertaking?
Where Are the Lady Geeks? [Fast Company]
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