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From: scholl@uvmark.uucp (Kathryn Scholl)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: computer games & women/girls
Message-ID: <1991Apr09.193235.47262@uvmark.uucp>
Date: 10 Apr 91 19:35:14 GMT
References: <13947@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> <8y+gmsm@rpi.edu>
Sender: ambar@ora.com (Jean Marie Diaz)
Organization: Vmark Software, Inc.
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Approved: ambar@ora.com

In article <8y+gmsm@rpi.edu> cook@rpi.edu (Cathi A Cook) writes:

>If you're looking for answers why females don't get into computer
>games, you certainly won't get one from me, most of my friends,
>or probably most of the females on the net.

Really?  Obviously our experiences differ greatly.  Being a software
engineer myself, I have a few comments.

First, most of my friends are *not* of the "computer" genre--they are
mostly white-collared, educated, NON-computer types (yes, yuppies).  I
have been observing the computer/gender/personality stuff ever since I
was in college, simply because I knew I was not at all like them.

*My* personal experiences are not like yours at all.  Every female
engineer at my company, and at all three computer companies I have
worked at, (usually ranging in the 10-15% of total engineers range),
are definitely *NOT* like the male engineers.

The differences?  Since we women have talked about it at great length,
I *can* speak for many...(including some on the net)...

	- Not a blatant fever/desire/love for bits/code/software-talk;
        - Interests outside of work having *nothing* to do with
          computers or software (e.g. sci-fi anything, computer games,
          etc.)
        - *MUCH* better social skills, e.g. social discussions, relating
          to the "sales-types", personal conversations, etc.
        - A better work reputation with others around the company (so
          we have been told).
        - Not "gurus" at what we do, but known for getting the job done.
        - Not caring whether we are gurus or not.
        - Not any of the ego/logical arrogance that seems to abound in
          my field.

The interesting thing is that the females who fit into the
"stereotypical" software-type, seem to have personality
characteristics of their male counterparts.  Any engineer, or anyone
who knows engineers well, know what they are.

Even beyond my yuppie friends, I know a pretty dynamic group of
people.  And from *me*, the ratio of female-engineer-"nontypes" and
female-engineer- "types" are about 15:1.

I could go on forever on the stereotypes, the male/female ratios, and
the whats & whys, but in a note, I believe that the stereotypes are
not gender specific, but personality specific, and I am thankful for
that.  (I don't jive with the argument that it's because of
improper/sexist child-rearing...I was and am a tomboy...yet another
big difference between me and the mostly non-athletic hacks).

Simply, we are happy we are not "into" computers, where "into" is a
pretty intense word.

-- 
Kathryn Scholl
...uunet!merk!uvmark!scholl