How Female Engineers Feel About the 'Barbie Can't Code' Debacle
Barbie can be just about anything. She’s been a doctor, football coach, firefighter, member of the military, business executive, and an ambassador for world peace without chipping her manicure or having her hair fall out of place. But in her new career as a computer engineer, it seems like she just can’t keep up — and this narrative is pissing a lot of people off.
Barbie: I Can Be A Computer Engineer has drawn criticism for its sexist storyline. “I’m only creating the design ideas,” Barbie tells her sister Skipper in the book. “I’ll need Steven’s and Brian’s help to turn it into a real game!” But then, when a virus infects Barbie’s computer, the boys are called on yet again. “It will go faster if Brian and I help,” Steven says to Barbie. And instead of telling him that she can run a malware software scan, she just let the men step in and help — the 21st century version of the damsel in distress calling on prince charming.
The book was published by Random House in 2010, but recently started to cause a stir after comedian Pamela Ribbon harangued the piece on her blog, which caused a stir on social media. A few different people even gone so far as to hack Barbie’s latest offering and have fixed the fable with a much more positive message. There’s even a “create your own adventure” type website called Feminist Hacker Barbie where people can create their own adaptations.
Vice President of Barbie’s Global Brand Marketing, Lori Pantel, said in a statement that the “portrayal of Barbie in this specific story doesn’t reflect the Brand’s vision for what Barbie stands for.” She added, “All Barbie titles moving forward will be written to inspire girls’ imaginations and portray an empowered Barbie character.”
So in order to dispel the idea that women in the tech industry need to rely on the opposite sex in order to succeed, Yahoo Style reached out to some impressive females kicking butt to gauge their reactions to the book.
Patty Nikhomvanh Smallwood, Senior Software Engineer at Boeing: "It’s disturbing that there is a book like that out there for young girls to read. I do not want my daughters reading this book. It’s telling them they aren’t good enough to get something to work on their own. We should be encouraging our children to solve problems instead of having someone else solve them once things get difficult."
Lauren Tsung, UX Prototyper: “As a user experience prototyper, I’m quite proud of my roots in computer science as coding is a cornerstone to my outlook as a designer. Coding may not be a craft for everybody, but it certainly isn’t one that is specific to a gender; in fact, I cannot fathom how being male or female implies inherent engineering chops. At the end of the day, I believe the products and technology we make should serve the needs of humans, and that is a complicated demand. Humans are diverse and emotional creatures, and thinking holistically about this problem requires both men and women to take a serious look at how to improve the human condition.
Avery Hagleitner, Software Architect at IBM: “I remember when I was in school, even though I was the only girl in my AP Computer Science class in high school, I was the one helping boys with coding, math, science, and computer problems. That’s the kind of story they should have told — a girl that can do it just as well, or even better than anyone else (boy or girl), and help others along the way.
A Senior Director of Product Management: "As an engineer by trade and mom to a three-year-old daughter, I’m so disappointed with the message that Mattel is sending to our young girls. Mattel is trying to drag us back into the Stone Age by introducing inaccurate stereotypes and ignoring the years of fight for women’s equality. None of my female engineering counterparts waited for the boys to come and "help code" anything. We studied and worked just as hard, coding alongside the men, to develop creative solutions using technology. This book is a reminder that the women’s movement of the ‘70s is still relevant today. We need to empower our young girls, and teach them what they can do rather than what they can’t."
