[MUD-Dev] Gender and Mud Development

[Katrina McClelan]

On Mon, 7 Jun 1999, Nathan F Yospe wrote:

> What, you and Holly and Katrina and Kristen and... um... uh, oh. Is this
> really that male-dominated a pursuit? You know, coming from physics, one
> of the worst fields for male-domination, and seeing female students with
> a series of confrontations with chauvenistic professors and the like, it
> always gave me a feeling of "oh, I can't stand this, I hope the younger,
> less entrenched generation manages to change things..." ... is mudding a
> good indicator that this is an unrealist hope? Are there reasons that an
> overwhelming majority of the admins and developers here are male? And is
> this something we can change?

Well, from the other side, the real corrolation is that the majority of
the engineers/programmers are male still.  I can remember sitting in all
too many classes where I was the only female in college.  And I can count
on my right thumb the number of female professors I knew in
engineering/computer science/math/physics (and she was an expert in
computer law, so she hardly counted).  However, while I think it is
obvious that engineering is still male dominated, I don't think there is
still the same gender barrier in place.  I don't think I had to fight my
way in.  I've been more than welcomed on this list, and in the mud
development community.  Outside of the good natured joke about the
demographics (how many female engineers does it take to screw in a
lightbulb -- both of them), gender has not really played a role in my
opinion.  This is a step of improvement in my opinion.  But then I got my
first home PC and never looked back.  I knew what I wanted to do and
didn't need to be encouraged to persue it.  The biggest cause for the
current demographics of the field is that if you take Jane, a high school
senior, who doesn't know what she wants to do, she'll be encouraged to go
to school, get a degree, be a part of corperate America, but she won't be
encouraged to go into engineering.  If you take John, a male high school
senior that doesn't know what he wants to do, engineering is a highly
reccomended field.  You see Barbie in business dress, with an atache case,
but not with a hardware tool kit, electronic devices, jeans and a T-Shirt.
(note that I list the doll as a reflection of opinion, not a creator of
it... Mattel isn't that cool)  That is the next step.

Incidently, I have been in _female_ dominated role playing groups, so I
don't see that side of it being the issue.  Different style of play to be
sure than when I have been in mixed or male dominated groups.

-Katrina

(note... I'm _so_ behind on my mail in this list... I've probably
ignored some threads I'd have normally added to.  blah)




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