I'm all for women in technology, but I was once forced into fanaticism by circumstance.
Once upon a time I was helping a
girl out with her
C++ homework, making light
conversation all the while. It came up, in
passing, that I found it rare but pleasing to see a high
percentage of female
computer science majors at
Marist.
So far so good, right?
Then, at another point in the
evening, I realized "Man, she really has
knack none for
programming....", and started asking her why she got into CS in the first place. Turns out she had never really used computers much before
college, but thought she would do well in CS because her
math and
science scores were good in
high school.
Bingo.
I have always considered this a bad reason to get into CS, and was not hesitant to tell her so. She was not happy.
A week later, another girl (an
excellent programmer, as it happens) came up to me and said "What's with you and women in CS?" Turns out that Ms. Math and Science had been going around telling people I was a
chauvinist bastard who thought women couldn't be programmers.
I was unhappy.
So, for a
month or so, I had to go around persuading people that I was in fact not a
pig, and thought women could be just as good with computers as men. And the
bitch maintains to this day that I told her to find another major because she's female.
::
sigh::