gender issues

September 05, 2003

Whenever I read about someone doing interesting work or a paper someone has written, I like to look them up on the web. It’s neat to find other papers they’ve written or see projects they have worked on or just get a better sense of who they are.

Most times when I look up someone, I find his web site, but I don’t find hers. Just last week I read an interesting paper, which appears to be written by 3 men and a woman — all three men had websites, but I couldn’t find the fourth author’s website. What’s up with that?

Most of the men I know don’t have websites, and I read many sites clearly authored by women, yet this subjectively observed phenomenon persists, and it bugs me. I never thought of my not having a website as a gender issue. Was I the pot observing a host of other black kettles?

This perceived gender disparity was the #2 reason I created this blog. I don’t write about gender issues much, because I don’t think about them much. However, I cannot immerse myself in this thriving technical ecosystem without occasionally noticing that I’m the only woman in the room. I’m thrilled that there are so many other technical women out there. I hope that I will see a day when there as a many women as there are men who are involved in this fun and exciting work (and play).