[Haskell-cafe] Are there any female Haskellers?

[Jason Dagit]

On Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 9:05 AM, Daniel Fischer <daniel.is.fischer at web.de>wrote:

> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: "Günther Schmidt" <gue.schmidt at web.de>
> Gesendet: 27.03.2010 16:14:57
> An: haskell-cafe at haskell.org
> Betreff: [Haskell-cafe] Are there any female Haskellers?
>
> >Hi all,
> >
> >from the names of people on the list it seems that all users here are
> males.
> >
> >Just out of curiosity are there any female users here, or are we guys
> >only at the moment?
> >
> >Günther
> >
>
> I'm pretty sure that Phil(l?)ip(p?)a Cowderoy is female, I've also seen a
> couple of other female names here and on the beginners list.
> (Since Ashley Yakeley seems to be located in the USA, I dare not guess
> whether Ashley is a man's name or a woman's in this case.)
>

Ashley Yakeley is a man.

I work with several female Haskellers.  And I've met several others who are
at universities or use Haskell on the side.

In general, I'd say women in computer science are a minority.  I would say
mathematics has a higher percentage of women than computer science from my
own anecdotal experience.  Why are there so few women in computer science?
 I don't know but it's an interesting question.  One professor I was talking
to about this subject said he felt that at his university when CS was a part
of math there were more women and when it became part of engineering the
percentage of women dropped.

It's possible that there are gender differences that cause men to be
attracted to this field more frequently than women.  I'm hesitant to say
that's the underlying reason though.  I suspect the following, based on
conversations I've had with women in the field.  For some reason it started
out as a male dominated field.  Let's assume for cultural reasons.  Once it
became a male dominated field, us males unknowingly made the work and
learning environments somewhat hostile or unattractive to women.  I bet I
would feel out of place if I were the only male in a class of 100 women.

Anyway, those are just observations I've made.  Don't take any of it too
seriously and I certainly don't mean to offend anyone.  I know gender
differences can be quite controversial at times.

Jason
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