Why Its OK to Have Hackathons for Women
I’ve been visiting with a number of student computer science groups to mentor them and help them attract more women. I was recently told …
I’ve been visiting with a number of student computer science groups to mentor them and help them attract more women. I was recently told that often times their efforts have been poo-pooed citing that hosting events like hackathons that are geared towards women only further segregate the genders.
So I asked the student groups one very simple question: how many female students show up to the open events and hackathons? The answer I received: zero to maybe a handful…
Great.
So if colleges tout that they have more than 40% women enrolled in CS programs then why aren’t there more female students attending so-called open events and hackathons?
Could it be that female students are just so overloaded that they don’t have time to attend any of the events? Maybe.
Could it be that female students are just disinterested in competition? Possibly.
Could it be that female students are just incapable of programming during a hackathon? I highly doubt it.
Or could it be that they are disinterested because when they do show up, they feel like they’re again in middle school, and the leaders of the teams have already picked their favorite players, leaving the those still standing to question their self-worth or why they bothered to even show up? I’ll let you be the judge.
Finally, it’s important to note that there are other causes supported by events, for examples marathons that specifically support breast cancer. No one raises an eyebrow at these. Why? Because exclusively supporting breast cancer doesn’t mean that other cancers are less important or that we cannot have marathons to support those. It’s a prevalent disease and people want to rally to show their support for it. Likewise having a women’s hackathon to increase their interest and participation is worthwhile.
