How to Hire "Miss Software" (and Other Awful Advice from the Mad Men Era)
In this episode of Breaking the 20%, we crack open the archives of early computing magazines from the 1960s and 70s — a time when keypunch girls were IN, lipstickless coders were OUT, and “dumb blondes” were considered the ideal user interface.
Join us as we explore the casual sexism, absurd hiring practices, and thinly veiled innuendo that shaped tech culture before the word “programmer” even sounded like a real job. From Susie Meyer learning PL/I to optical readers bragging they don’t take maternity leave, this is a tour through the cocktail-soaked, bias-ridden origins of the industry we call home.
Spoiler alert: The worst hiring advice from 1962 still feels a little too familiar today.
Confronting the Profiling Out of Women in Tech
In this episode, I'm joined by Josie Christodoulou, the Commissioner for Gender Equality, for a deep dive into the shifting role of women in the technology sector. We journey from a time when women were the programmers, through a pivotal moment when two men's profiling methods pushed women aside, to a contemporary debate sparked by an engineer's claim about the biological unsuitability of women to work in tech. Join us as we explore the roots of the current disparities and discuss Cyprus's National Strategy for Gender Equality.
Barbie can't code
In the first episode of Season 2 the heroine of the story is none other than Barbie. Yes, Barbie the doll! Did you know that Barbie had a career as a computer engineer? Unfortunately, it wasn't a very successful one. With the help of Maria, we explore the origins of the Barbie doll and her failures in maths and computing. And yes, we also talk about the movie.
Google’s Ideological Eco Chamber (Greek/Ελληνικά)
Μαζί με την Αναστασία εξερευνούμε τη γέννηση του άντρα αντικοινωνικού σπασίκλα άλλα ιδιοφυή προγραμματιστή και την ιδέα πως ο προγραμματισμός είναι ένα ταλέντο με το οποίο γεννιέσαι. Για να αποδομήσουμε το μύθο αναλύουμε από μια μελέτη που απέδειξε πως τελικά οι γυναίκες μπορεί να είναι καλύτερες προγραμματίστριες μέχρι το περίφημο σημείωμα του James Damore, Google’s Ideological Eco Chamber.