My last post, How DevOps is Killing the Developer, received quite a bit of attention on social media and technology news sites. The response was both positive and negative, but the negative reactions were really negative. I've been wondering what I can do to harness the article's popularity and turn that negative energy into something positive.

tl;dr: Female engineers are now entitled to a free copy of Writing Idiomatic Python and two hour-long private tutoring sessions. Further tutoring sessions are discounted.

That's why this post is about women in STEM. It's an issue that has received a good deal of attention lately (and rightfully so), but nowhere near as much attention as it deserves. I've been trying to determine what I, as an individual, can do to support the cause. Step zero, of course, is to give female employees the same amount of respect I give to male employees, as well as doing my best to create a work environment where women can flourish. I've been doing this all along, but it's not enough.

I've always treated female engineers (and females in general) as equals, but I realized I do nothing to actively support them and this cause. As I mentioned in my article about Brendan Eich, passively supporting a cause as important as this simply isn't enough. I admit, despite the fact that I fiercely believe that the way we work with and support female engineers needs to change, I've not taken any action to support that notion.

Today, that changes.

I've decided to make big changes using my two biggest resources: my book and my private tutoring. Starting today, Writing Idiomatic Python is free to female Pythonistas. If you're involved with an organization that supports female engineers, I'm happy to give a free copy of the book to all of your members.

In addition, any female is automatically entitled two free one-hour Python tutoring sessions, either in-person or remotely. Further sessions are offered at a reduced rate (the tutoring and book pages will be updated shortly to reflect this).

If you're interested in the book or tutoring, email me at jeff@jeffknupp.com and I'll get you set up. To all male engineers: please tell female colleagues about these offers. I sincerely hope that I get to give away thousands of copies of the book to women in STEM.

We Have a Long Way to Go

In the grand scheme of things, these offers alone are of exactly zero importance; I'm only one person. My hope, though, is that when men read this information it gives them pause. I want male engineers to be aware of the issue and to realize passive support is not enough. Of course, I'm just one random guy on the Internet, so my power to bring about change is exceedingly small. The best I can do is bring the issue to the attention of as many people as possible and try to lead by example.

As the father of a young girl (9 months old), I am increasingly aware of the disparity between the way men and women are treated in all aspects of daily life. I want my daughter to grow up in a world where she really can be anything she wants to be. Especially if she wants to be an engineer...