ACM Tech Talk: Programming for All: A Feminist Case for Language Design
Register for an ACM Tech Talk on on June 26 with Felienne Hermans on feminism
and programming language design here:
https://events.zoom.us/ev/ApLRijzyFgCnifGuJvpJ31NPusVTg1qPGZpSDnHseG8wYR_Yz0Yy~AliZYv3l7zOB7wJ6cE8-C7PZq2o10gwvzH-H5AdZGiUoAHh98Mant7uQAwKmzvkrktrlIeceplTrZwNS6HZxt4Wxwg
An abstract for the talk:
Programming was once a female only field, all “computers” were women, many of color. However, that situation was short-lived, and today we live in a world in which almost all mainstream programming languages are created by men, many of a western background.
In this talk, Felienne Hermans, professor of computer science education at VU, and a creator of programming language Hedy discusses the history of programming languages and gender and her latest paper on feminism and programming language design.
She will reflect upon how programming language construction came to be so male dominated, and how with that also an overwhelming masculine discourse was formed. Drawing on work from feminism and Science and Technology Studies (STS), Hermans explores what the impact of the masculine discourse is for the design of programming languages. She closes the talk with a sketch of what a different world for programming languages could look like, both in the context of her own Hedy language, and beyond.