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Why I won’t give talks about being a woman in tech

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Re: Why I won’t give talks about being a woman in tech

#11

Post by searine »

grb423 wrote: post #7

This is very refreshing. Diversity is a key to strength but seeing a woman present tech stuff is my preference at a tech conference. I was at a conference recently and I heard a neckbeard, seeing a woman warming up for the presentation we just sat down for, say something dismissive about another diversity talk. He actually left without sitting down. His loss. The talk was pure tech gold. As the OP says, the diversity…

>I heard a neckbeard, seeing a woman warming up for the presentation we just sat down for, say something dismissive about another diversity talk

It's really hard to take your criticism of a sexist dismissal seriously when you preface it with a sexist dismissal.

Re: Why I won’t give talks about being a woman in tech

#12

Post by return0 »

Something similar happens in science too. Anecdotally i watched it happen with my supervisor, as the latest "women in science" wave started about a decade ago. She got a number of administrative positions, which I increasingly felt she got "because she was a woman". That led to her being visibly left behind in her scientific field. It's funny, because she s far from what you would describe as feminist.

Re: Why I won’t give talks about being a woman in tech

#13

Post by sakaloda »

Diversity in tech will never work. You are going against reality if you think everyone has the same aptitude to be good at math/engineering. Look at the data below.

SAT Math by race [1] :

- Asian/Pacific Islander = 598

- White = 534

- Mexican American = 461

- Black = 429

SAT Math by gender [2] :

- Men = 537

- Women = 503

[1] https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=171

[2] http://www.fairtest.org/sat-race-gender-gaps-increase

Re: Why I won’t give talks about being a woman in tech

#14

Post by dang »

sp332 wrote: post #2

A better title would be "I won't give talks about being a woman in tech". She's not against talking about it in general.

The first sentence makes it clear that that's what it means, so let's just evade this bikeshed by disambiguating the title above.

Re: Why I won’t give talks about being a woman in tech

#15

Post by someone7x »

I went to ngconf this year and two of the talks that stood out to me were given by women.

One was the angular materials talk / demo and it was amazing. The presenter was exuding tech prowess, I was blown away by how easy she made it look to make a dog adoption website. One of the best talks.

The other was by the CEO of girl scouts giving a patronizing 5 minute talk about how we need all help women in tech succeed and change ourselves so the world can change for the better. One of the worst talks.

I had those in mind when I read the article and for that reason I think I can see where she's coming from. When a woman just gives a tech talk, it's just a tech talk incidentally given by a woman. Isn't that the goal? More talks like the first one I described?

Re: Why I won’t give talks about being a woman in tech

#17

Post by grb423 »

searine wrote: post #11
grb423 wrote: post #7

This is very refreshing. Diversity is a key to strength but seeing a woman present tech stuff is my preference at a tech conference. I was at a conference recently and I heard a neckbeard, seeing a woman warming up for the presentation we just sat down for, say something dismissive about another diversity talk. He actually left without sitting down. His loss. The talk was pure tech gold. As the OP says, the diversity…

>I heard a neckbeard, seeing a woman warming up for the presentation we just sat down for, say something dismissive about another diversity talk It's really hard to take your criticism of a sexist dismissal seriously when you preface it with a sexist dismissal.

You are absolutely right. I stand corrected. He just really annoyed me and I guess it still stings.

Re: Why I won’t give talks about being a woman in tech

#18

Post by netsharc »

sakaloda wrote: post #13

Diversity in tech will never work. You are going against reality if you think everyone has the same aptitude to be good at math/engineering. Look at the data below. SAT Math by race [1] : - Asian/Pacific Islander = 598 - White = 534 - Mexican American = 461 - Black = 429 SAT Math by gender [2] : - Men = 537 - Women = 503 [1] https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=171 [2] http://www.fairtest.org/sat-race-gender-…

I would say at the moment there's still a feedback loop. Little girls somehow learn that they're expected to be not as good at math, and maybe they try less hard and give up more easily. Not to mention socio-economic backgrounds when you bring race into it.

Re: Why I won’t give talks about being a woman in tech

#19

Post by grb423 »

sakaloda wrote: post #13

Diversity in tech will never work. You are going against reality if you think everyone has the same aptitude to be good at math/engineering. Look at the data below. SAT Math by race [1] : - Asian/Pacific Islander = 598 - White = 534 - Mexican American = 461 - Black = 429 SAT Math by gender [2] : - Men = 537 - Women = 503 [1] https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=171 [2] http://www.fairtest.org/sat-race-gender-…

Wow the bigotry. What is wrong with you? These tests are created and scored by privileged white people.

Re: Why I won’t give talks about being a woman in tech

#20

Post by jordigh »

> No! The answer to an all male line-up is not a talk on women on tech by a women. The answer is diverse people in the line-up, talking about tech.

At the last US Pycon, where 40% of the speakers were female, there were a broad range of topics. Several female speakers did speak about "soft" issues like being a woman in tech, but many others also spoke about "hard" purely tech issues. There were also males on both sides of the soft/hard line. You can see the topics here:

https://us.pycon.org/2016/schedule/talks/

I don't think it's a problem to give soft talks, and I think Pycon is doing a great job of increasing diversity. It's not perfect and there's work to be done, but I really don't see soft talks by women as an evil to be avoided. If people want to give soft talks, let them do it.

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