The inventor of the Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has called for an end to the "stupid" male geek culture that disregards the work of capable female engineers, and puts others off entering the profession.
Berners-Lee said that a culture that avoided alienating women would attract more female programmers, which could lead to greater harmony of systems design. "If there were more women involved we could move towards interoperability. We have to change at every level," he said.
According to Berners-Lee, a culture exists where women can be put off a career in technology both by "stupid" behaviour by some male "geeks", and by the reactions of other women.
"It's a complex problem -- we find bias against women by women. There are bits of male geek culture and engineer culture that are stupid. They should realise that they could be alienating people who are smarter and better engineers," said Berners-Lee.
Engineering research facilities that interview candidates based only on how many papers they have had published also risk adding to the problem, according to Berners-Lee, because of an apparent in-built bias against women.
One academic went through a sex change, submitted the same papers under both identities, and found that papers were accepted from a man but were rejected when they came from a woman, said the Web inventor. This bias is unaccountable, but adds to institutional bias, he said.
Tom Espiner writes for ZDNet UK.
What a load of tripe.
If you looked at university studies you might find that the numbers of women that want jobs in IT is actually pretty low & not necessarily anything whatever to do with what we do. The fact that so many males are into the geek factor is more likely to bring women looking for a male with a good work ethic. Your point is pointless because you have no facts behind it.