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A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech

kapwing.com

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Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech

#371
post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not dismissive if it's true.

That's not how that works. ^ This comment is me being dismissive of you, and it's also true.

You have the right to be dismissive, but you don't have the right of proving me wrong without arguing against my point with a coherent argument.

You are basically saying that women have never treated men differently based on their attractiveness, which is absurd.

Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you please give an example? I only see comments from people avoiding interaction with women at work. And they are doing this because of the potential trouble such an interaction might bring not because they are getting into trouble by doing so.

I don't think adding "at work" really makes it better. The original comment I replied to is basically saying that men just avoid women as an "one of the unfortunate unintended consequences of the #MeToo movement." My point is that this is not due to #MeToo, it's due to people with bad social skills who think avoiding women is better than improving them.

Well, if you honestly believe the original comment was about not interacting with any and all women then I don't know what to say. I guess what I tried to explain will remain a mystery to you.

Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech

#373
post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why men who aren’t able to read those boundaries prefer to simply avoid getting anywhere near those boundaries. The easiest way of not transgressing is to avoid contact altogether.

Reasonable enough, but if that's the case, we should be blaming the avoidance on men for their social incompetence, not on women for having boundaries.

Or we shouldn't be blaming either men or women and instead should work towards more open communication and solidarity regarding these issues.

Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech

#374
post #26
post #2

> 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 have a talented, and wonderful, female dev on my team. One thing though:. She has described to me some of the male coders as being "creepers". When I asked for specifics, she couldn't provide them. She simply stated it was a "feeling". The one commonality I found with the creepers is that they are pretty clearly below average in looks. The question is whether this is a correlation or a casual factor. But definitely…

The one commonality I found with the creepers is that they are pretty clearly below average in looks. The question is whether this is a correlation or a casual factor.

It's both. There was, in our ancestor's state-of-nature, a very high social and reproductive opportunity cost associated with the worst possible actions of a "below-par" male. This would have been true even before the advent of language. Furthermore, note that the opposite of the above is true with an "above-par" male. I think this explains a lot of female behavior with respect to men who are more and less attractive.

Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech

#375
post #317

I am a female engineer and I studied CS in Europe. I never had issues socializing. My classmates were fortunately very inclusive, maybe because the men-women friendships have a different dynamic in Europe, or I was just lucky. Either way, my class was still 95% male. I would say we have to look at even younger girls to see the issue. I have a brother who is really into computer games. When we were children, my parent…

I think you just pointed the biggest issues in the article: the problem starts before any of the solutions proposed. You can do whatever you want during the job/university but if you still get 95% males it won't fix the issue.

> I think we have to start early and stop dividing professions into for men or women. Let men be nurses and women firefighters. Look at your childrens personalities and let them grow in whatever they enjoy, girly or not.

I would just add that we should do this even if it doesn't change anything. Just let people do whatever they like and don't judge them with stupid stereotypes. Don't force girls to be CS and boys to be nurses if they don't want to.

Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech

#376
post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes, improving your social skills can be damned hard. But that’s irrelevant if you don’t even want to do it. Er... your theory is that "too shy/awkward to carry on a casual conversation with a woman" is something that some men prefer ? That they could overcome it, but don't want to? That seems more likely to you than "they would like to overcome it, but haven't been able to"?

When the discussion consists entirely of people saying they just avoid talking to women entirely, yes, that seems much more likely. I’m not saying they’re happy with it, but prefer it over self improvement? You bet. People usually hate trying to change themselves.

They are talking about the workplace in particular. They are saying, why risk your job being social with women at work when you can be social elsewhere.

Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech

#377

>Between the ages of 16 and 24, girls have more sophisticated social lives than boys of the same age. Young women talk to their friends more often [1], care more about their reputation [2], spend more time talking about their friends [3], and assign more emotional value to close relationships [4] I admire that she provided links for these, but I really don't believe any of those statements. That list of 4 things is d…

It seems to me that the author would generally be sympathetic to Damore's memo (but who knows for sure) based on the views espoused in this post, so I don't quite understand your point.

Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech

#378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I see it: 1. Making friends isn't even remotely close to a line. The line is way out in workplace romance and sexual power politics land. The very basic mitigation strategy you have is simply not to go there. If you can't not go there, then you have other problems to deal with first, and the sooner you go about that the better! 2. If making friends isn't crossing a line, it's therefore not sticking your neck…

You seem to be misinterpreting my comment: a) My comment about nursing meant that the workplace barriers within opposite-gender mentoring exist on both sides of the spectrum...not acting as an excuse. Your reaction is just like telling the author to "get on with [her] life." b) Who said anything about "weird fetishized platform of unobtanium"? I was just pointing out the legal realities that exist within the workplac…

What I'm trying to tell you is, and I believe the legal and HR "reality" back me up on this, that the vast majority of friendships struck up in the workplace do not lead to legal or HR headaches. Certainly this has been my experience, and nothing has changed in the past few years to make me change my mind. The people who should be afraid, and I'm glad if they now are, are the people who do regularly get up to, or cross, the line into inappropriate behavior.

I say you are letting your fear of sensationalized stories, and/or general fear of the Other, lead you astray.

Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech

#379
post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I qualified that statement by saying "If you're saying that your attractiveness is the reason you've been told you're creepy...", because if that's what he's saying, he's admitting his intentions and I don't have to assume. If he's not saying that, then my statement doesn't apply.

Your "statement" is hopelessly wrong even if GP is saying exactly that. You have failed at logic, probably because of your privilege. You cannot imagine being conventionally ugly (poor, unstylish, socially inept, etc.) enough that your every communication would be viewed with suspicion. GP informs us that GP is at least that conventionally ugly. If GP says "good morning" while maintaining eye contact and smiling slig…

For someone accusing me of making assumptions, you sure are making a lot of assumptions about me. You've made assumptions about;

* My privilege * My attractiveness * My style * My social skills * My life experiences * GP's actions * GP's experiences

Not having a woman be attracted to you is not systematic oppression, or even oppression at all. No one is entitled to the attention or affection of another. People are, however, entitled to be treated with dignity and respect regardless of their race or gender.

Anyway, you're an obvious troll. Your profile even says so. So I'm done with this conversation.

Re: A female engineer's opinion on why there are fewer women in tech

#380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I see it: 1. Making friends isn't even remotely close to a line. The line is way out in workplace romance and sexual power politics land. The very basic mitigation strategy you have is simply not to go there. If you can't not go there, then you have other problems to deal with first, and the sooner you go about that the better! 2. If making friends isn't crossing a line, it's therefore not sticking your neck…

Sexual power politics land starts in the grey line between saying hello in the morning and giving someone unwanted attention.

There is a massive, massive gulf between the two. Unless there's something weird about how you say it?
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