Do you think it's funny that you titled the interview as you did and chose the first question to be "how conscious are you of being a female engineer as opposed to just an engineer"?
I do.
Introducing “Ask a Female Engineer”
11–20 of 491 posts
Re: Introducing “Ask a Female Engineer”
#12How active should men be in actually helping to solve the gender diversity problem vs sitting on the sidelines and sharing the work of women who are solving the problem? I've been working on an initiative to encourage more of my male peers to do more to make their organisations more diverse and was recently criticised by a female software engineer who told me that I shouldn't "come into a feminist space" where "women…
I've done a little bit of volunteering and the attitude (by far) has been "we are working together for a better future".
If someone is asking specifically for a woman's point of view then stay out of that, but otherwise I wouldn't be discouraged.
Re: Introducing “Ask a Female Engineer”
#13How active should men be in actually helping to solve the gender diversity problem vs sitting on the sidelines and sharing the work of women who are solving the problem? I've been working on an initiative to encourage more of my male peers to do more to make their organisations more diverse and was recently criticised by a female software engineer who told me that I shouldn't "come into a feminist space" where "women…
If the initiative exists already, defer to the ones running it. Find out where you can help, but you don't need to be in the spotlight. That would be being part of the problem.
Basically: prioritize listening and helping out when possible. When you can't, when there's no initiative, then make it a priority to enable women access to positions of power over initiatives like that - and of the organization in general.
Otherwise, stepping in and taking over or preempting feminist initiatives is problematic.
Re: Introducing “Ask a Female Engineer”
#14Not trying to be sarcastic but how would the world respond if someone starts, "Ask a male engineer"?
Re: Introducing “Ask a Female Engineer”
#15Do you think it's funny that you titled the interview as you did and chose the first question to be "how conscious are you of being a female engineer as opposed to just an engineer"? I do.
I'll give the benefit of the doubt to the interviewer and assume it's supposed to be interpreted as the presumed perspective of the average programmer.
Re: Introducing “Ask a Female Engineer”
#16Do you think it's funny that you titled the interview as you did and chose the first question to be "how conscious are you of being a female engineer as opposed to just an engineer"? I do.
[deleted]
Re: Introducing “Ask a Female Engineer”
#17Can you add an introductory blurb (education, current company/role) for each respondant? It's hard to tie in experiences to just a first name.
We intentionally left those out and used pseudonyms so the engineers would feel comfortable answering candidly
Love, love, love the pseudonyms chosen, by the way.
Re: Introducing “Ask a Female Engineer”
#18Can you add an introductory blurb (education, current company/role) for each respondant? It's hard to tie in experiences to just a first name.
We intentionally left those out and used pseudonyms so the engineers would feel comfortable answering candidly
Loved the choice of pseudonyms – particularly Ada and Grace!
Re: Introducing “Ask a Female Engineer”
#19> Invite women you work with for coffee
No chance of this being misinterpreted.
Invite women you work with for coffee and
ask what they like or dislike about their
day-to-day. If they mention concerns or
problems they’re having, ask if there’s
any way you could help make it better.Re: Introducing “Ask a Female Engineer”
#20Not trying to be sarcastic but how would the world respond if someone starts, "Ask a male engineer"?
Try rather with: "ask a male nurse".
That is more comparable, i.e.: both are perfectly normal, but both are not too common for historical and possibly other reasons.