'How To Be A Woman Programmer'

In a recent poll performed by The Washington Post, six out of ten women declare themselves to be a feminist (Cai and Clement). In Ellen Ullman’s essay, “How to Be a ‘Woman Programmer,” she argues that women today “face a new, more virile and virulent sexism” (729). However, Saul Kaplan, author of “The Plight of Young Males,” adds to the gender inequality argument by stating, “Young men in the United States are in trouble by any measure of educational attainment” (732). It has become common today to argue about women’s inequality or focusing on solely the school’s education methods to equip future men, which we tend to overlook the deeper problems which are the results of our rapidly growing feminist culture.
Since the 1980s, Ullman has presented …show more content…
But by concentrating on how to improve the “equal opportunities for women, we have taken our eyes off an alarming trend” (732). On 2011, Kaplan visited a college campus and was shocked to see a drop of young men attending, “Where have the men gone?” he questions (733). The census in 2011, reported 51% of men in the United States are between the ages of 18 to 24, and only 40% of the college student body are men (733). Kaplan’s fear escalated once he read a great book called, Raising Cain by Michael Thompson, where he predicts, “if today’s trends continue unaltered, the last young man in the US to get a college degree will do so in 2068” (qtd. in Kaplan 733). In addition, the local NBC news reports 70% of class valedictorians are women. These young women have been dominating high school honor rolls while 11th grade young men are still writing at a level of an average 8th grade girl (733). Kaplan believes progress will only come when the United States changes the education’s method from a “one-size-fits-all pipeline” system to an “individualized approach where every student can find his or her own pathway” (734). If nothing is done to prepare young men, the middle class will perish. He urges, “We must turn school into places that recognize the specific learning needs of young men and help them prepare for the 21st …show more content…
Ullman encourages women to never give up and fight for their dreams. Her motivational words have been inspired by her past experience of harassment and discrimination. Through her hardships, she has grown and shaped the successful woman she is today. Ullman will be shocked to learn that the percentage of women in the Computer Programming field has dropped to 21 percent, but surprisingly the percentage of women in Management and Professional Occupations, have dominated with 57.2 percent (“Labor Force”). Kaplan, on the other hand, questions the school systems of how they are focusing all their attention on inspiring and preparing young women to be successful and lack the time and resources to motivate the young men to pursue a higher education. Kaplan has done his research and has presented statistics of what was true for schools in 2011. Unfortunately, in 2015 Time magazine printed, “In the 25-34 age group, 37.5% of women have a bachelor’s degree or higher, while only 29.5% of men do” (Feeney). The truth that I see is the uprising of our misguided feminist culture. Do not be misled, I completely support women’s rights activists, as opposed to the new women-are-superior-than-men feminist movement in our modern culture. I agree with Kaplan, schools need to change their methods to better prepare boys for the future. They can start by getting books that spark boy’s interests, increasing free time for