I found this and just had to post because I've got some thoughts too, hehe.
I think, as already mentioned, women have to be generally interested in computers first, then getting into more defined fields. It's a proven fact that women are better database administrators than men. Organization and whatnot playing a major role into that where guys are really good at quick&dirty on-the-fly stuff (hehe, I remember some of my earlier stuff, what a riot).
I know a few women in the security sector, my new boss is an old assembly programmer, I've had the outright PRIVILEGE to meet and talk with *the* Evi Nemeth.
I'd love to see more women in the computer field. Actually doing work, that is. I'm already constantly surrounded by women who're trying to promote themselves by looking pretty and I blame society on that. Nah, get down here on the technical level and help me with a php/postgresql project where we're dealing with md5 hash strings on uniqid strings based around a host's IP when dealing with session management in a new database project and THEN I'll be impressed. I've never ever given anyone, much less a female, a negative comment when they were trying. If someone's fake and shallow about my field, I have no qualms crushing them like the worthless bugs they are. But if someone tries and they want to learn, I'll tell them ANYTHING I know. I've just never had a woman interested in linux or unix or programming, etc...if I had one approach me, I'd gladly help out, as well as learn things from them, because we can all learn from each other.
Yes, the computer field is primarily male-dominated and very competitive. But not as competitive as the gaming sector! I'm all about Call of Duty, Battlefield 1942 : Desert Combat .7 mod, Vietcong (great AI), Unreal Tournament, UT2K3, UT2K4 demo (thank God they brought back Assault, what were they thinking?!), upcoming titles like Soldner, Stalker: Oblivion Lost (just got renamed to something else though, bleh), Ground Control 2, Gangland, World of Warcraft, Battlefield: Vietnam etc....
And we haven't even gotten into the RTS, which are my favorite for SP...Command & Conquer Generals with the Zero Hour expansion, ORB, Hedgemaenia (sp), Age of Empires 1, Age of Empires 2 (Age of Kings) with the Conquerors expansion, Rise of Nations, Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, Warcraft: Orcs vs Humans, Warcraft 2, Warcraft 3 w/ Frozen Throne expansion, etc...I could SERIOUSLY go on.
I don't have my signature for nothing, rofl...dymze, I'll have to find you sometime on COD, that's the main one I play right now. I'm on as :nOs:Vorlin and I live for melee'ing someone's head in, hehe. HQ, Retrieval, or S&D are my favorite modes to play in. TDM/DM just aren't fun in WW2 modes.
