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Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years

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Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years

#91

There is an expression which I think is fitting, in a weird way - a successful marriage does not have to last forever. For some reason, we always tend to imagine that, once a company or organization is created, it must last forever. That for it to ‘close its doors’ or ‘wind down’ is somehow a failure. And that’s just not true; a professional athletes career does not last forever, and neither does the lifespan of most…

She says she’s closing it “with a heavy heart”. It sounds like she wanted to continue.

I could read it as either way. It could be a sadness to see it come to and end, but still having full agreement the time has come. It could also be a sadness because financial hurdles or other operation hurdles are making it near impossible. It's hard, but I get it either way.

Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The popularization of computer science degrees absolutely did push down the price of software engineers on average. The Big Names in SV are outliers; the rest of the industry employs us at wages far closer to other professions than they could a generation ago.

This. People really do forget what it was like just before the peak of the dotcom bubble. There were companies that offered perks like a fully paid lease on a brand new Porsche 911. This wasn't just for the software engineers either. If you could breathe on a keyboard, you could land a high-paying job. Demand was that high. That era of tech minted way, way, way more millionaires on average.

Surely, we can all agree that this is not sustainable. Companies basically throwing money at people that might not have the skills you need is a massive waste of money from the companies point of view.

Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years

#94
post #51

At the risk of posting a reflexive comment, what should we be doing here? It seems like everything has unintended consequences (not on a cost-benefit basis): - Minority affinity groups pull people from majority groups and decrease integration. - Anti-discrimination/sexism/etc. movements often add social barriers to interactions (e.g. things I do within my identity group would be misperceived if done across) - Affirma…

> Affirmative action makes minorities feel like they don't deserve to be there

Does it? I see a lot of affirmative action victims saying that it _ought_ to make them feel that way, but I never hear that from affirmative action recipients.

Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years

#95
post #69

Running out of money is a common cause of business failure, non-profit or otherwise. Seems like their donations dried up with the economic slowdown. I'm sure they'll be back up and running once things pick up. Orgs such as these are easy to restart.

Easy is relative. And just because it might be feasible to do it in 5-8 years, it does not mean that the founders will be in a position to start it

Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years

#96
post #37

The reasons for closing haven't really been elaborated on, just commented on as sad and devastating; I haven't managed to glean anything more from the rest of the article. However, it's incredible to me to keep an organization like this going for 17 years. The landscape is constantly shifting and looking back at the world and technology from 2007, and even 2014, they've survived a lot. Going down now just shows how b…

How is them going down related to the market? They are a non-profit. This is pure speculation but I would imagine that they reasons for closing are likely resource related (most likely financial) as organisers and managers can be replaced

I would guess they get most of their funding from tech companies who support and participate in their programs.

Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen data presented multiple times showing the relation between a country’s wealth and/or economic freedom and women’s participation in stem fields. It’s a negative correlation. I often wonder if we should just be focused on maximizing individual freedom and let the chips fall where they may. This will result in some professions with extreme sex imbalance, and we should accept that outcome.

It is important to understand the reasons for that negative correlation. If you do, your conclusions would be quite the opposite - sex imbalance is not something to accept, but rather to fix. Many authoritarian regimes are expanding their economic base by enabling women to pursue professional careers. In some developed countries there’s no such pressure, so they are simply stuck in the past. They are not doing better…

The countries with the most female empowerment and equality in the nordics have some of the smallest percentage of women in STEM in the world.

Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years

#98
post #69

Running out of money is a common cause of business failure, non-profit or otherwise. Seems like their donations dried up with the economic slowdown. I'm sure they'll be back up and running once things pick up. Orgs such as these are easy to restart.

What/which economic slowdown?

Re: Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. People really do forget what it was like just before the peak of the dotcom bubble. There were companies that offered perks like a fully paid lease on a brand new Porsche 911. This wasn't just for the software engineers either. If you could breathe on a keyboard, you could land a high-paying job. Demand was that high. That era of tech minted way, way, way more millionaires on average.

Surely, we can all agree that this is not sustainable. Companies basically throwing money at people that might not have the skills you need is a massive waste of money from the companies point of view.

Nobody was talking about whether or not it was sustainable, we're just comparing salary potential now to a generation ago.

To the managerial class, tech people used to be literal wizards conjuring the impossible and now we're regular commoditized office labor like any other.

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