The revolutionary shift of gender stereotypes within the industry throughout the years
In my last blog, I highlighted on the stereotypes in the programming industry. In this blog, I am going to talk about the incredible shift of gender stereotypes in programming. The whole concept seems incredible or insane if you think about it. Programming was considered to be a women’s job earlier. In the earlier days, People thought of programming as a “Women’s Job” as they thought it included minor physical work and all one does in programming is just move tiny bits and pieces from here and there. It was until later on that people realized how mentally draining it can be. One needs to have critical thinking ability, must master the art of multitasking, must be a fast learner and should have the ability to handle intense mental stress if you even want a shot at becoming a novice programmer. Eventually, they started the criteria of “Aptitude tests” for hiring the programmers. Men had a better chance of getting the job as they had more opportunities. However, in the case of women, they were either barred from attending schools or were not considered worthy enough for the jobs. And so the world witnessed the shift of the whole stereotype of programming. The whole stereotype changed from how it used to be a “Women’s job” to how it is a “Man’s job”. In 1960′s around 50% of programmers around the world were females. Fast forward to 2020, around 90-91% of programmers are male and it shows how far we have come or how low we have stooped really. It shows the gender domination in our society, highlighting how women don’t even get a good enough chance to succeed in the field. On top of that they have to deal with sexual harassment and sexist injustice of fellow colleagues. The perfect analogy of this is the novel “VOX” by Christina Delcher, where people live in a society where women can speak a limited number of words everyday and at a certain point in the novel, two characters have intercourse and the girl is the only one who faces the consequences. This is the similar situation we have in today’s day and age. Women don’t have enough opportunities to make themselves heard. They are the ones who suffer consequences because of other men’s deeds. People need to break the stereotype of “Women can’t code” or “Women can’t code better than men”. It is a fact that women can code and they can excel in the field and even surpass men in the field. So, the question arises in this so called Man’s world, Will women ever find a place where they will be equal? Will they ever have enough opportunities to work in an environment where they can work in peace, make mistakes without consequences, get a fair chance and can actually achieve their dream of becoming a coder? It still isn’t too late. People should analyze history and learn how women are the ones who deserve the glory and it is their time to take the crown that has been taken away from them. In fact, it is their crown and it wasn’t meant to fit men. It is theirs by right!
