Way back, when I used to acquire, edit, produce, and promote hypertexts over at Eastgate Systems, men would approach me at conferences and ask the same funny question: "Why, Diane, are there so many women in hypertext?"
I never quite knew how to answer this question. Sure, we were out there -- Kathryn Cramer was my first boss, and there was Judy Malloy and Carolyn Guyer and Elli Mylonas and Deena Larsen and Shelley Jackson and Mary-Kim Arnold and Kathy Mac and Cathy Marshall and Jane Douglas and Sarah Smith and Judith Kerman and Christiane Paul and that was just in 1994. Other women followed, too many to list. And I should stop here anyway because I'm sure I've already left enough people out. My point is, although women were better represented in hypertext than, say, in the mathematics department at MIT, surely this was no reason to conclude that our numbers were excessive, or even remarkable.
Perhaps these men were really asking me something else. Like, "What's a hot chick like you doing in a place like this?"
No? Well, in that case, I don't know what it was. Because according to at least one hypertext critic (a "feminist," no less) there are, in fact, no women in hypertext.
