<RANT>
I frequently see self-styled minority / oppressed groups complaining about
demographic issues.
eg:
There aren't enough <your favourite minority group> using Linux.
There aren't enough <your favourite minority group> in the IT industry.
On behalf of the part of <your favourite minority group> that aren't enough, I'm
appalled.
Here's why:
I'm a geek and I hate "team sports" but according to statistics, there aren't
enough geeks playing "team sports".
I'm more than happy for geeks to be under-represented in "team sports".
I'm not at all happy to have some "team sport" savouring demographic monitoring
nutter trying to coerce me into playing "team sports".
I'm almost as unhappy to have slightly more moderate nutter throwing me a sales
pitch on why I too should be a "team sport" savouring, demographic monitoring
nutter.
This rant was brought to you by a lecturers comment in a local IT magazine that
"there are not enough women in the IT industry, so we should encourage more
women into IT".
One could equally say "there aren't enough male nurses". I don't care. I know
what nurses do all day and it bores me to tears. I don't want to be afflicted
by some misdirected drive to make the statistics tidy. Demographics are
numbers. Who here likes being treated as a number? Not me!
Statistical correlations between gender and occupation overlook one very
important fact. In this society, we are free to pursue whatever career we
desire. We may not succeed at some, but we can still pursue it. I personally
unsuccessfully pursued a career as a police officer. My rejection letter stated
that I was 'too much of a nerd'.
I see no real benefit in trying to convince people that they want to do one job
in preference to another.
</RANT>
If someone can give me a good reason why the numbers should matter more than the
individual, I'll be glad to listen.
************
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
