Unlocking the clubhouse
by Jane Margolis, Allan Fisher · first published 2001
63% recommend38% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Research-based look at why so few women study and work in computing, covering childhood socialization, unequal early computer access, and department culture; the CMU program changes are cited as a worked example.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"The information technology revolution is transforming almost every aspect of society, but girls and women are largely out of the loop. Although women surf the Web in equal numbers to men and make the majority of online purchases, few are involved in the design and creation of new technology. It is mostly men whose perspectives and priorities inform the development of computing innovations and who reap the lion's share of the financial rewards. As only a small fraction of high school and college computer science students are female, the field is likely to remain a "male clubhouse," absent maj
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…turn off many folks that aren't white/middle-class/male. I think this might be an unpopular opinion here, but i believe it bears pointing out. A while ago i read a very thought-provoking book entitled "Unlocking the Clubhouse" by Margolis and somebody else whose name eludes me. If you're not already convinced by the unapproachable ivory-tower side of STEM fields, that book may convince you.
on “Friendship’s Dark Side” ↗I'd recommend _Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing_ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262632691?ie=UTF8&tag=... by Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher. They studies reasons why fewer women were enrolled in the CMU CS program, and successfully…
on “Of Geeks and Girls” ↗I recommend reading "Unlocking the Clubhouse : Women in Computing" by Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher. A good NPR story on this topic : http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/07/22/487069271/episo... TL;DR: It was the rise of the personal computer.…
on “The power of role models” ↗The seminal work on the subject is "Unlocking The Clubhouse" by Jane Margolis: http://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Clubhouse-Computing-Jane-Mar...
on “Google's Marissa Mayer: Girls Can Be Geeks, Too” ↗"Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing" (by Margolis & Fisher) is an excellent book on this topic. MIT Press page: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/unlocking-clubhouse Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Clubhouse-Women-Computing-Pr...
on “Being a “dumb” girl in Computer Science” ↗I highly recommend reading "Unlocking the Clubhouse" by Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher [0]. It's a relatively short read and i found it to be an eye-opener with regards to the various factors that go into shaping our very (embarrassingly so!) gender-imbalanced…
on “On Programming Languages: Why My Dad Went from Programming to Driving a Bus” ↗I encourage everyone in tech to read Unlocking the Clubhouse, by Margolis et al. It doesn't quite propose how to solve the problem, but it certainly teases out a number of contributing factors. I think in the case in point, the importance of being encouraged/discouraged…
on “Why are most programmers white males?” ↗…https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Encourage-Women-Linux-HOWTO/ [3] What Happens to Us Does Not Happen to Most of You (Kathryn S. McKinley, 2018) https://www.sigarch.org/what-happens-to-us-does-not-happen-t... [4] Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing (Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher, 2001) https://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Clubhouse-Women-Computing-P...
on “Cancel We The Web? (2020)” ↗…https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Encourage-Women-Linux-HOWTO/ [3] What Happens to Us Does Not Happen to Most of You (Kathryn S. McKinley, 2018) https://www.sigarch.org/what-happens-to-us-does-not-happen-t... [4] Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing (Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher, 2001) https://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Clubhouse-Women-Computing-P...
on “Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of the FSF” ↗…wiki. There are a couple of books which I can recommend that talk about why you see so few women in computing (as opposed to biology, math, etc) and also why you see so few black men and women: * Unlocking the Clubhouse: http://a.co/8oXDROX * Stuck in the Shallow End: http://a.co/9HXgvKW These are not only well written, but they're also well researched and well thought out. They're worth reading on their own merits,…
on “Why it may be illegal for Google to punish that engineer over his now viral memo” ↗…"broad range" of interests and not to obsess over any one thing, which is the exact trait that enabled me and many other programmers I know to get ahead in programming. I underestimated it too until I read Unlocking the Clubhouse (http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=8515...) a few months ago. For problems this large and systemic, significant corrective action and positive reinforcement are required.
on “Girls Need Math” ↗Read 'Unlocking the Clubhouse' (in regard to women.) It's dated but more recent research has similar conclusions. I can't speak personally about race issues in tech. What I do know is that the industry thrives on ideas, and as people…
on “100 Days as a Black Man in Silicon Valley” ↗That's not exactly what the research shows. The great book "Unlocking the Clubhouse" shows off some research to suggest that culture within CS departments and software development companies are largely, but not entirely, to blame.
on “U.S. Labor department sues Google for compensation data” ↗…learning about the different distribution of ownership and access to personal computers among boys and girls, and it looks like the personal computer actually introduced the interest difference. The book Unlocking The Clubhouse has a bunch of discussion on this topic, if you're curious.
on “The Kolmogorov option” ↗It's a worthwhile question. The referenced study ("Unlocking the Clubhouse") explores part of the issue and is a very interesting read. Take a look! Unfortunately, the lead time for solving the root cause is at least 1 generation. We will have to use stopgap solutions until…
on “Mistakes we've made” ↗