Earlier quoted context omitted.
...what on earth gives you the impression... I have been here nearly fifteen years. I know for a fact that participation here helps line the pockets of some of the men here. I will let others decide if the entire community will, as usual, let someone assert that I am imagining things they know is fact or will for once back me up.
> I know for a fact that participation here helps line the pockets of some of the men here. This is so vague as to be unusable. Firstly, I (sadly) have absolutely no doubt as to much of what you said. Offers of cash for sex, flirtations, white knighting. > trying to establish an earned income via freelance writing and resume work and couldn't do it HN isn't - as you know - really about soliciting work for yourself, o…
Okay, give me a list of openly female members who are "doing it right" and managing to successfully use Hacker News as a networking tool the way I know for a fact some of the longtime male members have done. Show me an example I can follow.
Of course my gender is not the only factor. You can chalk some portion of it up to other factors and me failing doesn't prove it can't be done by any women.
But I'm not personally seeing other women doing it. But men certainly are.
My argument isn't that my gender is the only issue here. My argument is that as far as I can tell, I fit in here better than other women based on objective metrics like my karma count and I can't manage to break the HN "glass ceiling." So if I can't, who can?
Point me to some examples.
A quick search tells me 10.4 percent of CEOs are women and 22 percent of C-suite executives are women. As far as I can tell, in nearly fifteen years of participation, I am the only openly female member that I know of who has spent time on the leader board and I've done it twice under two different handles.
So if the goal is "first fit in" I appear to do that better than most women. And I am unable to turn it into a means to make an adequate income.
Ergo I think it is reasonable to conclude that my gender is, in fact, a factor.
I will grant you it's "unprovable." How convenient for people who don't want change and want an easy out for dismissing critiques that might lead to constructive progress.