Jules she/her1d ago
This shouldn't still need saying in 2026 but all else being equal women are just as capable of doing anything - coding, understanding maths, running a company, training consistently as an athlete, doing science - as men are and you can't deny that and call yourself a feminist. But you also can't call yourself a feminist if you deny that everything else is not equal and the way society is currently structured women face more barriers to doing these things than men do.
Show threadsecretsloth1d ago

@afewbugs my former neighbor did computer coding on punch cards**, back when it was considered women's work. I dunno who might need to hear this, but it used to be women's work, before men decided oh, wait, no, this gives women too much power and influence to actually make decisions autonomously, and then it became "men's work." This is within living memory! And yet some people deny that women even have the capacity for it. Ridiculous.

**update, she has corrected me, paper tape

Show threadCaz Mockett
@secretsloth @afewbugs my mum dealt with Hollerith punched cards in her job in the early 1960's. After she had me she hasn't gone near anything computer-related since. I think she believed them somehow 😫
Apr 5 at 4:41pmWeb
Show threadsecretsloth1d ago
@cazmockett @afewbugs I wonder if I could find out what kind my neighbor used, I will ask my family that's still in touch with her and see if they can find out! She lit up when I asked her about it but honestly it was so different from modern programming that I couldn't follow too closely (I know the basic theory, but the reality goes right over my head). Honestly, it sounds like it must have been a thrilling job! Right on the forefront of the changing world. Amazing.
Show threadsecretsloth1d ago
@cazmockett @afewbugs oh! My family is having Easter with her, so I spoke with her 😅 she says she didn't use cards, same era but it was actually paper tape, and then later they switched to magnetic tape, spliced together. They still use the same machines to splice movie tapes. She used a recycled computer system that had belonged to the air force. That's what she learned on. I'm amazed. Tape sounds even more fragile! :o
Show threadJules she/her1d ago
@cazmockett @secretsloth women believing it makes me saddest of all. There's a sustainability podcast I listen to because they have really interesting guests but the host's "tee hee I'm a silly woman who can't be expected to understand percentages or how heat pumps work!" drives me absolutely crazy.
Show threadCaz Mockett1d ago
@afewbugs @secretsloth FFS! 🙄
Show threadfak1d ago
@afewbugs @cazmockett @secretsloth I've just started reading Identity Crisis by Ben Elton which references 'a generation when it has been useful for a woman like her to affect a certain lovable dizziness to make their husbands feel clever.' The male ego to be protected due to the power that they have.
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE1d ago

@cazmockett @secretsloth @afewbugs My father once had to keep everybody behind after work to try to find out where 6d had got lost in the accounting system.

It turned out that one of the data entry people had been eating chocolate, and had dribbled some onto a card blocking a hole. New rule introduced: no eating chocolate whilst operating a card punch.

Show threadCiara1d ago
@cazmockett @secretsloth @afewbugs It is sad and infuriating, the way we got tricked into believing and internalising so much of this. I say 'we' as a Gen Xer at the Boomer end of the Gen X scale. I hope today's young women aren't getting caught up in the same stuff that they will have to spend their 40s and 50s and 60s unlearning.