Article I Founded Girls Who Code. Now I’m Worried About Boys
Article I Founded Girls Who Code. Now I’m Worried About Boys
Article by Founder of Girls Who Code
I don’t know if I’m being curmudgeonly or not but this just ticked me off for some reason. The majority of computer scientists are still men. What do you guys think about this article? Does she make any good points that I’m overlooking? Sometimes I just think endless empathy with be the death of us.
She makes some good points but I wish she'd put more emphasis on men needing to step up. Where are the men? Why is it on women to handle all this for men and boys as well as women and girls? We can't just abandon boys to be raised by the internet and gaming and the manosphere, but men seem to not want to step up to the responsibility, while blaming women at the same time. Men are too busy wanting to be mommied and catered to, and don't seem to care if boys are getting the male role modeling and influence they need.
Quote:We need public investment in youth mental health. We need a “Men Who Nurse” and a “Guys Who Teach,” pipeline programs that can offer boys real pathways forward in fields that desperately need them.
[...]
We need to start asking our boys better questions. How are you feeling? What’s been hard for you? Who do you trust? What scares you?
And when they struggle to answer, we can’t shut down. We need to help boys and men build the language necessary for them to live full, happy lives.
Quote:We need public investment in youth mental health. We need a “Men Who Nurse” and a “Guys Who Teach,” pipeline programs that can offer boys real pathways forward in fields that desperately need them.
[...]
We need to start asking our boys better questions. How are you feeling? What’s been hard for you? Who do you trust? What scares you?
And when they struggle to answer, we can’t shut down. We need to help boys and men build the language necessary for them to live full, happy lives.
It's fair it pissed you off, it was not a good article. The only point I can really agree with in there is that boys need to actually be raised. I agree that they need to be taught empathy and how to not be shitty little monsters. However, even the role model thing is bothersome because boys have TONS of positive role models. Theyre not going into the manosphere bullshit because of a lack of role models, they're doing it due to societal misogyny that virtually no one is doing anything about, particularly when misogynistic ideals are being pushed by both political parties.
It's pretty upsetting that the founder of Girls Who Code is apparently unaware, or doesn't care, that the amount of women in computing has only DECLINED since 1990. That's already 3 DECADES worth of declining representation in a field where women were already scarce to begin with. On top of that, from all the STEM fields out there, computing and programming has the most abyssmal rates of female representation and some of the highest rates of misogynistic harassment and abuse towards women. The overwhelming vast majority of people working in computers are still men. The overwhelming vast majority of people getting computer science degrees are still men. Men are not discriminated against when trying to get a job in the field , trying to get a promotion, or even just trying to get a point across in a meeting. They're not underrepresented or discriminated against in any way whatsoever. And at a time when tech is so pertinent to everyone's lives and we've got AI already being used to spread misogynistic garbage across the internet, it is insane to genuinely believe we need to focus on boys and men now when we are still in desperate need of more representation and support for girls and women. ESPECIALLY in this field.
While I have nothing against trying to increase boys' interest in fields like teaching and nursing, as I believe most fields would be relatively equal if we didn't paint certain fields as "womens" and "mens" fields, I also think it's absurd to believe we need actual programs for them. Men are not discriminated against when it comes to getting teaching or nursing degrees and they are most definitely not discriminated against when it comes to hiring and promoting for those jobs. As a matter of fact, men do SO WELL in traditionally "female oriented" careers, where they get hired more easily and promoted way faster than they're female counterparts, that there's a name for it: the glass elevator.
(Jun 10 2025, 11:43 AM)skunk It's fair it pissed you off, it was not a good article. The only point I can really agree with in there is that boys need to actually be raised. I agree that they need to be taught empathy and how to not be shitty little monsters. However, even the role model thing is bothersome because boys have TONS of positive role models. Theyre not going into the manosphere bullshit because of a lack of role models, they're doing it due to societal misogyny that virtually no one is doing anything about, particularly when misogynistic ideals are being pushed by both political parties.
It's pretty upsetting that the founder of Girls Who Code is apparently unaware, or doesn't care, that the amount of women in computing has only DECLINED since 1990. That's already 3 DECADES worth of declining representation in a field where women were already scarce to begin with. On top of that, from all the STEM fields out there, computing and programming has the most abyssmal rates of female representation and some of the highest rates of misogynistic harassment and abuse towards women. The overwhelming vast majority of people working in computers are still men. The overwhelming vast majority of people getting computer science degrees are still men. Men are not discriminated against when trying to get a job in the field , trying to get a promotion, or even just trying to get a point across in a meeting. They're not underrepresented or discriminated against in any way whatsoever. And at a time when tech is so pertinent to everyone's lives and we've got AI already being used to spread misogynistic garbage across the internet, it is insane to genuinely believe we need to focus on boys and men now when we are still in desperate need of more representation and support for girls and women. ESPECIALLY in this field.
While I have nothing against trying to increase boys' interest in fields like teaching and nursing, as I believe most fields would be relatively equal if we didn't paint certain fields as "womens" and "mens" fields, I also think it's absurd to believe we need actual programs for them. Men are not discriminated against when it comes to getting teaching or nursing degrees and they are most definitely not discriminated against when it comes to hiring and promoting for those jobs. As a matter of fact, men do SO WELL in traditionally "female oriented" careers, where they get hired more easily and promoted way faster than they're female counterparts, that there's a name for it: the glass elevator.
(Jun 10 2025, 11:43 AM)skunk It's fair it pissed you off, it was not a good article. The only point I can really agree with in there is that boys need to actually be raised. I agree that they need to be taught empathy and how to not be shitty little monsters. However, even the role model thing is bothersome because boys have TONS of positive role models. Theyre not going into the manosphere bullshit because of a lack of role models, they're doing it due to societal misogyny that virtually no one is doing anything about, particularly when misogynistic ideals are being pushed by both political parties.
It's pretty upsetting that the founder of Girls Who Code is apparently unaware, or doesn't care, that the amount of women in computing has only DECLINED since 1990. That's already 3 DECADES worth of declining representation in a field where women were already scarce to begin with. On top of that, from all the STEM fields out there, computing and programming has the most abyssmal rates of female representation and some of the highest rates of misogynistic harassment and abuse towards women. The overwhelming vast majority of people working in computers are still men. The overwhelming vast majority of people getting computer science degrees are still men. Men are not discriminated against when trying to get a job in the field , trying to get a promotion, or even just trying to get a point across in a meeting. They're not underrepresented or discriminated against in any way whatsoever. And at a time when tech is so pertinent to everyone's lives and we've got AI already being used to spread misogynistic garbage across the internet, it is insane to genuinely believe we need to focus on boys and men now when we are still in desperate need of more representation and support for girls and women. ESPECIALLY in this field.
While I have nothing against trying to increase boys' interest in fields like teaching and nursing, as I believe most fields would be relatively equal if we didn't paint certain fields as "womens" and "mens" fields, I also think it's absurd to believe we need actual programs for them. Men are not discriminated against when it comes to getting teaching or nursing degrees and they are most definitely not discriminated against when it comes to hiring and promoting for those jobs. As a matter of fact, men do SO WELL in traditionally "female oriented" careers, where they get hired more easily and promoted way faster than they're female counterparts, that there's a name for it: the glass elevator.
Quote:men do SO WELL in traditionally "female oriented" careers, where they get hired more easily and promoted way faster than they're female counterparts, that there's a name for it: the glass elevator.
Quote:We talk more about a “male loneliness epidemic” in the US than sex trafficked women.
Quote:men do SO WELL in traditionally "female oriented" careers, where they get hired more easily and promoted way faster than they're female counterparts, that there's a name for it: the glass elevator.
Quote:We talk more about a “male loneliness epidemic” in the US than sex trafficked women.