Sexism in the Ruby community: how does the Python community manage it?
Steven D'Aprano
steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info
Thu Oct 17 21:49:44 EDT 2013
On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 21:13:33 +0300, Serhiy Storchaka wrote:
> 17.10.13 20:37, MRAB написав(ла):
>> It's interesting to note that, in the early days, programming was
>> thought to be a suitable job for a woman because, after all, it
>> involved typing, so basically it was just clerical activity!
>
> But in the earlier days, typing and clerical activity were male
> dominated fields.
Correct. "Secretary" originally meant "one who keeps secrets for
another", e.g. the Secretary of State. I think MRAB is conflating
programming with the first computers, who were women, not machines.
Because it was tedious, repetitive work, and because most of the men were
over in Europe getting shot at, nearly all of the computers at Bletchly
Park were women. The actual mechanical computing devices were called
"bombes", I kid you not.
--
Steven
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