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@wboykinm
Created May 1, 2013 18:23
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On sexism in the developer community

I've got two reasons for supporting #GirlDevelopIt #BTV:

  1. The ONLY reason I can call myself anything like a developer is because I - through sheer luck - threaded my way past the trolls and found support with some extremely generous & patient mentors. If at any point in my first year of code-headbanging I had encountered that species of asshole that likes beating up on newbies, I would almost surely have stopped trying. So I figure I had a 50% chance of finding the right people to work with and keeping my distance from negativity. I think the chances drop by a factor of 10 for a woman in my position, navigating the insane levels of culturally-reinforced sexism and searching for peers to learn from.

  2. I love Vermont. I was born here, raised here, and I'm fortunate to have returned here to raise my own family. I've gotten accustomed to shrugging off the outrages of the world with a simple "Man, that sucks - but we don't have that problem here". Obviously a few douches on Reddit was all it took to pop my bubble, though it's not terribly surprising in retrospect. But instead of despairing, I'm going to support any measure that brings on the day when my son looks for a job at a design shop or tech firm and finds it staffed by women and men on equal footing, collaborating and coexisting.

He's 3, so hopefully it happens quicker than that :)

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