Harvard psychologist Dan Kindlon predicts thet spread and rise of the alpha girl. Does this mean we will see more female software hackers and developers soon?
February 6, 2008
The rise of the alpha girl
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I’m going to be provocative and ask would that be a good thing? In terms of value invested with money/time in a career, being a hacker (particularly a FOSS one) is *not* that sharp a thing to do. (I’m not arguing women shouldn’t have equal opportunities to pursue any career they want, but just cause I’m a geek does that mean I can assume everyone wants to be like me?)
Comment by Joseph Reagle — February 6, 2008 @ 6:56 am
I have to echo Joseph’s question. It’s always assumed that if there’s a field in which some group is less than proportionally represented, that it would be unquestionably a good thing for their representation to become proportional. But rarely is a reason given why this is inherently desirable.
I think a lot of people are professional geeks in part because they’d have trouble being anything else; like being gay, it’s not a “choice”.
Instead of encouraging more girls to become geeks, why does no one ever suggest an intervention program to help more boys avoid geeky careers, for example?
This is no way a repudiation of my tribe, by the way
. I love geekdom, but there’s nothing inherently good about it, nor do I see any reason to prefer encouraging people to join it rather than encouraging people to leave it. It’s just that somehow, policy proposals always go one direction and not the other.
[Disclaimer: I haven't read Kindlon's original article, just this post; it doesn't sound like he's making any sort of policy proposal, just describing a pattern.]
Comment by Karl Fogel — February 6, 2008 @ 10:14 am
If you’re going to be an IT nerd anyway, you might as well be an open source one, since http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2008/020408-open-source-it-pros-earn.html“>according to a recent study the open source ones earn more.
I read the original article and I can see some overlap between the “alpha” characteristics and the ones that Val Henson suggests in her “HOWTO negotiate your salary and benefits – for women” too.
Comment by Don Marti — February 6, 2008 @ 3:36 pm
Sorry about that — link should be…
according to a recent study
Comment by Don Marti — February 6, 2008 @ 3:37 pm
@Karl — the article’s not really about that, but to answer your question: I think the “inherent desirability” comes from the truism that diversity is better. It’s better because different experiences lead to different perspectives, which prevents groupthink. That is the theory, anyway.
As for why women are encouraged to get into geeky careers: a lot of it is economics. Outside of academia, geekiness pays pretty well and financial security for women means more freedom to disobey traditional gender roles.
Comment by Erinn — February 7, 2008 @ 1:10 pm