Tech is the best industry for women • Hacker News Board

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#31

Post by greenshackle2 » Thu, Jul 27, 2017, 8:46 PM UTC

jmcgough wrote: post #14

symlinkk wrote: post #11

> But tech is hard on everyone, not just on me, not just on women. It's considerably easier for women. Tech is: 1) One of the most male dominated fields and 2) One of the most progressive and pro-diversity fields So you combine those two together and you get hundreds of companies that will reject a more qualitifed male for a less qualified female because she will make the workforce more "diverse". Personally I find t…

> you get hundreds of companies that will reject a more qualitifed male for a less qualified female because she will make the workforce more "diverse" I have never ever ever heard of this happening, as much as some people like to scream "preferential treatment" with no evidence.

For a single case study, see what happened with speaker selection for GitHub ElectronConf. After gender-blinding their process, they found they had too many men to their liking, so they re-did the process to have a more pro-woman bias.

(But I don't think this is indicative of the industry as a whole.)

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#32

Post by Karrot_Kream » Thu, Jul 27, 2017, 8:46 PM UTC

barsonme wrote: post #23

Rjevski wrote: post #2

Kinda off-topic but I have to agree with the "it doesn’t matter where you come from" and myself am very grateful to the tech industry for that. If it wasn't the case I'd probably still be working at a fast-food chain currently, as in my country without years of formal education you're pretty much considered worthless - if it wasn't for tech I'd be doomed.

Similarly here. School wasn't the best fit for me and tech was great because (like politics, which I also spent ~5 years in) you didn't need a fancy degree to get a job.

> you didn't need a fancy degree to get a job.

What's wrong with a fancy degree? I don't understand why fancy degree is used as a pejorative around here. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that most people these days that come from bootcamps make more money than people with "fancy degree"s.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#33

Post by lilychendances » Thu, Jul 27, 2017, 8:46 PM UTC

tickthokk wrote: post #7

I'm curious if this was a response letter to the other female-tech blog post ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14868390 ). You don't seem like a stick in the mud, which makes me believe that the other poster is. Not a fair comparison, I admit. I don't know either of you, so that's just the impression I get from these two separate posts.

I did not see that post until you put it here

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#34

Post by cJ0th » Thu, Jul 27, 2017, 8:47 PM UTC

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#35

Post by nickbauman » Thu, Jul 27, 2017, 8:47 PM UTC

hammerzeit wrote: post #4

Please, before this degrades into the inevitable shouting match, let's please consider that there are two things that can both simultaneously be true: 1.Tech is less bad than many, many other industries. I can personally speak to overt, even illegal sexism in the field of medicine at a level that would cause riots in tech. I’ve heard similar stories in academia, to say nothing of fields like manufacturing. We live in…

In Hollywood, men at certain levels throw tantrums and break things when something isn't to their liking. It's changing a little and the film industry is ready for a comeuppance.

But in IT and many other industries this kind of behavior would get you flat-out escorted out of the building. What's considered OK on a film set is not tolerated in most offices.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#36

Post by bdcravens » Thu, Jul 27, 2017, 8:47 PM UTC

wand3r wrote: post #3

50 votes, posted 12 minutes ago. No comments. Find it hard to believe that many people discovered and read it that quick...

Not sure if this is the case, but a lot of people do drive by upvoting/downvoting based on the title alone.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#37

Post by dublinclontarf » Thu, Jul 27, 2017, 8:47 PM UTC

hammerzeit wrote: post #4

Please, before this degrades into the inevitable shouting match, let's please consider that there are two things that can both simultaneously be true: 1.Tech is less bad than many, many other industries. I can personally speak to overt, even illegal sexism in the field of medicine at a level that would cause riots in tech. I’ve heard similar stories in academia, to say nothing of fields like manufacturing. We live in…

I think the article highlights one of the good points about tech. The meritocracy.

It's not perfect but it's there.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#38

Post by rdiddly » Thu, Jul 27, 2017, 8:48 PM UTC

"I'm a stripper" [or whatnot] "and techies treated me just fine."

Not exactly changing my mind about bro culture.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#39

Post by Rjevski » Thu, Jul 27, 2017, 8:48 PM UTC

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #32

barsonme wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similarly here. School wasn't the best fit for me and tech was great because (like politics, which I also spent ~5 years in) you didn't need a fancy degree to get a job.

> you didn't need a fancy degree to get a job. What's wrong with a fancy degree? I don't understand why fancy degree is used as a pejorative around here. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that most people these days that come from bootcamps make more money than people with "fancy degree"s.

Nothing wrong per se, but personally I see it as a waste of time - you could've built real products and actually improved the world during the time wasted on that fancy degree.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#40

Post by civilian » Thu, Jul 27, 2017, 8:48 PM UTC

I think tech represents a good implementation of a meritocracy. You are welcomed to be weird and yourself, as long as you get your work done. Think about your coworkers-- you've got some weird ones. Dyed hair? Check. Burlesque dancing? Check. Gender non-conforming? Check. Goes to Burning Man? Check, check, self-check. Any of these things could get you fired from teaching kindergarten.

Let's keep tech inclusive and accepting and weird.

---

Before switching to software, I was a Research Associate at the Fred Hutch. At one point my Principal Investigator told me point-blank: "I don't expect to help you or motivate you, the other Research Associate, or the PostDocs much, because you all get paid far more than the Grad Students."

Being a manager and giving a bit of excitement and motivation is so easy. It's free! It's free to have a positive attitude and be excited for your work and let that be infectious. Yet my boss just decided not to do it. Academia biology research is so fucked.