The number one priority of any CompSci department is to recruit more women. My college had a separate ACM chapter for women, even though there were only 3 female undergrads in the department. I was close friends with one of them, and she reported her belief that being female made it much easier to get hired. I've not interviewed at a whole lot of places, but twice now I've been informed, in the hiring process, that the company really preferred to hire women. (Can you imagine a company telling its women applicants that they're really looking to hire men? They'd be sued to hell and back.)
So here some entrepreneurs have decided to solve the "problem" of female underrepresentation in the programming field by....selling a game. Supposedly the game will "inspire" girls to code. Now, I have a daughter. I think she's smart. (So does she.) I'd be thrilled if she became a programmer. It's safe, the benefits are fantastic, and as a lady she'd had an advantage. And we'd have plenty to talk about too. I won't actually attempt to coerce her to adopt the field, but if I did, how would I go about it? Games? To think video games would actually inspire career choices is just...cute. Most men don't pursue careers in military special forces, do they? People choose a career field because of their natural proclivities and the benefits & status the job offers. We can't alter the natural proclivities, so all we are left with is benefits. Programmers don't usually become rich, but the benefits are much greater than the average job. In short, the best incentive to inspire people to program is already in place. It's salary, and vacation days, and a comfortable work environment. If that doesn't draw women in, then nothing will.
It's tempting to assume the makers of this game are very naive, but maybe not. Maybe they're just responding to market forces. They know that the conviction is so strong among the public that there is a female programming incentive deficit that they can offer a solution and make a profit for themselves. It looks like they have hundreds of backers already, with the equivalent of $30K USD already pledged. I'm sure there are people who could knock out something decent in a few weeks. Not a bad gig!
If money and benefits don't provide the proper inspiration to program, nothing will. The truth is most girls don't like to program. And they really don't like programmers. I know some guys who used to go to spring break and lie about their backgrounds to pick up college girls. They pretended they were investment bankers or music executives or non-profit organizers. They never pretended to be programmers. I've never impressed a woman by telling her I'm a programmer. Actually I don't even do that. Why would you do that? Programmers have no social status. They really don't. The high geek ratio ensures it. They make good money, sure, but that's not the same as status. Women usually aren't naturally drawn to programming, and it offers no status. All that's left is the money. And still they mostly avoid it.
The only thing left to do is what these game designers are doing: profit off the prevailing belief system. You might say, "at least they're doing some good to help!" I think they're actually making things worse. Here's part of the first review from their blog post about the game:
“I had never coded before playing Erase All Kittens. I expected it to be difficult, boring and complicated, but now it seems fun and easy - the game was great!"What a wonderful review from Sara, age 14! But the problem is, actual paid programming isn't fun and easy. It's difficult, boring, and complicated. All this does is to give false expectations. She'll join the hordes of kids who enroll into a CompSci department, realize within the first year that computer science isn't the same as video games, and transfer to some other field, taking a low GPA with them. I suspect these efforts do more harm than good. But also I don't really care. I'll just try to make sure my own daughter isn't "inspired" by video games.
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