Thoughts about picture "The APMs at a social event in Napa"?
The lady is kind of left out. Not sure if it's american hover-hand culture, but to me it looks one of the problems.
A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
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Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dont give up, learn the basics of human interactions and get interested in people, your life will change.
Advice like this is similar to telling a depressed person to just be happier.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#13> Go befriend a girl in your class or company. It’s not creepy. As an unattractive computer nerd, I've been regularly reminded my entire life that I am creepy. Skipping.
Some time ago we moved into a new office and I placed myself next to the only girl in our tean. Shortly after I felt a little creepy but she actually seemed to appreciate it, also because she mostly got non-technical tasks. So I also thought some technical collaboration would be possible, in fact we once talked about that.
Anyways, a week later the rest of our team moved in, placing themselves at the other end of the room from where we were sitting. So the other day my boss approached me and said: hey look, why are you sitting here? Move to us. Yay, now I'm sitting in the corner and I can talk to nobody!
Long story short, WTF. Other people make sure you feel creepy, if don't do already.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#14Interesting that popular perception is that it is hard to be a woman in STEM because you get so much unwanted attention, but in this case it was exactly the opposite. She wasn't able to find lab partners for projects in male majority classes and felt lonely.
I just don’t see how that could be. When I was studying, we had 2 girls in a peer group of roughly 90 people. All they had to do to find a lab partner is have a pulse. Interestingly, both have graduated, and neither is using her degree now.
What is this phenomenon called? I've seen it plenty of times; there must be some research etc on this.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#15Interesting that popular perception is that it is hard to be a woman in STEM because you get so much unwanted attention, but in this case it was exactly the opposite. She wasn't able to find lab partners for projects in male majority classes and felt lonely.
I just don’t see how that could be. When I was studying, we had 2 girls in a peer group of roughly 90 people. All they had to do to find a lab partner is have a pulse. Interestingly, both have graduated, and neither is using her degree now.
> I just don’t see how that could be.
I'm not sure what you mean? Why would the women be inherently attractive as lab partners?
Many men in the lab would probably think that the women would be weaker, or wouldn't know how to interact with them, so wouldn't want them as lab partners.
And the men may have a higher chance of knowing each other already from outside the class in sports teams and fraternities, so they would team up with people they already know rather than someone they didn't.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#16I notice that the big decline in female enrollment in CS came around the time the Hollywood stereotype of a computer programmer changed from a well-intentioned labcoated professional whose creation might have gotten a bit out of control to a basement dwelling hacker carrying out a solo fight against the bullies, the man, etc.
Which also corresponded to home PCs and gaming consoles becoming common. So computers became more about a hobby with often limited social interaction as opposed to being solely about something that college students and adults pursuing computing as a profession did.
Which arguably also led to this idea that if you haven’t been doing computing recreationally since you were a kid you obviously are not Passionate enough to join $disruptive_startup.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#17Interesting that popular perception is that it is hard to be a woman in STEM because you get so much unwanted attention, but in this case it was exactly the opposite. She wasn't able to find lab partners for projects in male majority classes and felt lonely.
Also notice that even though she had the option, she didn't approach anyone to try an secure a lab partner. She posted her own position opening and waited until all spots were taken. She could very well have clicked on anyones post and that would have been the end of it.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#18> Go befriend a girl in your class or company. It’s not creepy. As an unattractive computer nerd, I've been regularly reminded my entire life that I am creepy. Skipping.
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Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#19Interesting that popular perception is that it is hard to be a woman in STEM because you get so much unwanted attention, but in this case it was exactly the opposite. She wasn't able to find lab partners for projects in male majority classes and felt lonely.
I just don’t see how that could be. When I was studying, we had 2 girls in a peer group of roughly 90 people. All they had to do to find a lab partner is have a pulse. Interestingly, both have graduated, and neither is using her degree now.
I have a hard time believing your anecdotal data point about a third person is enough to claim a person exposing their own experiences is wrong.
Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech
#20> Go befriend a girl in your class or company. It’s not creepy. As an unattractive computer nerd, I've been regularly reminded my entire life that I am creepy. Skipping.
I know the feeling.
Something society doesn't accept that attraction plays a huge role in social development at a young age. An "ugly" person is not likely to develop the experience needed to feel comfortable befriending a member of the opposite sex at a young age. The other person can't help but be uncomfortable with the idea that you might be romantically interested in them.
It gets better with age though. I've found that telling women I'm married makes them much, much more friendly and engaging.