i always think about that study where they had adults hold a baby, and when they were told the baby was a girl the adults said she was cute and small, and when they were told the baby was a boy they said he was big and strong. they rated the baby’s ability to do things and tendency towards certain toys differently. they even held the baby differently. (x) or when they rated the baby’s physical ability to do various tasks such as climbing up a slope differently, (x) & when they measured how much parents told their girl children vs. their boy children to be careful and stop being so rowdy (x), & when they measured how often girls and boys were told to be quiet. (x)
this was, obviously, all unconscious behavior in the adults. they’re not all like, raving sexists who outspokenly believe that women can’t do stuff or that girls really should just be quieter, be more still than boys. like its not even counting the direct, actual messages, its just literally how every single person in your entire life treats you, and if asked they would probably deny that its even because you’re a girl. how the fuck am i supposed to believe this doesn’t affect a child’s development when its literally constant throughout the entire process
This is called socialization and it impacts literally every aspect of our development. Gender is a social construct.
Did you know the first computer coders were women? Did you know they were given that role because coding was thought to be a menial and clerical task, like punching a card? Did you know that the women who were given the job of coding all had advanced degrees in mathematics and could calculate missile trajectories by hand and were relegated to doing work perceived to be equivalent to that of punching a fucking card?
Did you know the women were forced out of coding when the men realized it was a skilled, lucrative job that required a shot ton of logic and complex thought? Did you know the term ‘coding’ was replaced by the term ‘programming’ because ‘coding’ had a feminine connotation? Did you know that the “professionalization” of any field typically requires the exclusion of women?
Did you know that girls were socialized to believe computers were for boys as women were excluded from an industry they were instrumental in creating? Did you know that the aptitude tests administered to identify good potential programmers unintentionally alienated half of the survey pool because questions tested mathematical skills boys were more likely to have during a time when girls were vehemently discouraged from STEM? That girls with ability were unconsciously passed over by computer science teachers in the 1980’s and that computer time was reserved for the boys instead?
And now people wonder “why are there so few women in tech?” Bitch I dunno, maybe because you used lazy screening practices, disparaged the ability of women to code, changed the feminine term to a masculine term and then told women interested in programming that they couldn’t understand it and then refused to teach them????