Sociological Point Of View
Sociological Point Of View
Hi Folks
Just discovered this thread and have been busy reading it until I reached, well, here.
Yes it's very true that computing in general and retro computing in particular is almost nearly a male thing. As to why this is, the only explanation I can come up with is that women like to see what their computer can do rather than be interested in how it actually works.
This is important because looking back to my own experience, I was not too interested in what CPU was inside a computer, or what add-ons you could buy for it. All I was interested in was drawing, and as you all know, most Amigas came bundled with Deluxe Paint. It was only because of that I opened up a present in 1989 and found a nice new A500 inside.
This is were it started, later on, bit by bit I started to learn more of what was actually going on under that keyboard and again when 3D modelling started to appear this gave me the final push to really find out how an Amiga could be improved to do the things I wanted it to do. Oh and the games of course!
I was lucky I guess.
Back in the early 90s, I knew quite a few girls who regularly used their
brother's Amigas. Girls just didn't tend to be given computers at Christmas by their parents because it was seen as "too technical" and so would be a waste of money for an underused expensive "toy", but arnt all toys a waste of money if you think about it in those terms? :roll:
My point is girls were not really given any incentives to get into computers outside of possible work based training and if you don't get someone interested when they are young and show them it can be fun, there is very little chance of them ever being interested later on, because the conditioning (determined by what society sees are appropriate gender roles) has set in by then.
This is why (for example) my niece, when she was visiting me had her laptop with her to do her homework on. She took a break and decided to try out Deluxe Galaga AGA on my old 1200, she loved it! At the end of the day Amiga Forever was installed and now when she comes round, it's "Auntie have you got any more rp9 images for me to install"? :roll:
Of course today it's very different, lots and lots of women have PeeCees, because of social networking (women love to chat!), email and of course the big one, clothes shopping!
Just my thoughts folks!
