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Women in Tech: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

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Re: Women in Tech: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

#72
post #59

[deleted]

Maybe men don't care about working at a beautify salon? More likely though Real Men(TM) don't want to be hairdressers! That's only for flaming homosexuals! Never underestimate the power of a good social taboo. Now, given that there aren't a lot of gender taboos against women working on Wikipedia or in technology startups, then it seems to me that at least the latter has to be a career choice issue. I think there are…

If hairdressing were a multi-billion dollar global industry and the foundation of almost the entirety of the future economy that would be more of a problem. Tech, however, is big, important, and getting bigger.

Re: Women in Tech: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

#73

Did anyone actually read this article? From the comments, I can only assume not. He's asking women in tech to act as angels for other women in tech. This does not seem to be what anyone here is responding to.

I agree. I read the post and most comments here apparently didn't get the main point of the article.

Re: Women in Tech: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe men don't care about working at a beautify salon? More likely though Real Men(TM) don't want to be hairdressers! That's only for flaming homosexuals! Never underestimate the power of a good social taboo. Now, given that there aren't a lot of gender taboos against women working on Wikipedia or in technology startups, then it seems to me that at least the latter has to be a career choice issue. I think there are…

If hairdressing were a multi-billion dollar global industry and the foundation of almost the entirety of the future economy that would be more of a problem. Tech, however, is big, important, and getting bigger.

However, if other industries and businesses are indications, as the industry matures, women will come. The internet used to have a 50:1 male to female ratio. Open source software engineering today has a similar ratio (compared to a 2:1 ratio in commercial software houses).

Maybe the issue is that women don't want to work in a risky and immature industry. Especially when that involves potentially deferring or even giving up on plans to have a family (something men do not have to do to participate in it). You can't be a new mother and try to raise your kid naturally (breastfeeding etc) and work 130 hours a week. It doesn't work.

Re: Women in Tech: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

#75
It's wrong to offer up the idea that women somehow are biologically averse to tech. You need only look outside the US to verify this: Malaysia's tech sector is almost evenly split between men and women.

It's a cultural thing, which we're loth to admit. We look around and say, "We treat women the same around here", not thinking for a second that maybe that's the problem.

I run the Hackbright Academy, a hacker school for women, and I ask all applicants what compels them to apply to our program. Invariably, part of every story is the idea that they were intimidated out of the field in college or high school by their male peers. Whether or not that's the grand reason for the disparity, it's still something that shouldn't be a reason at all.

Re: Women in Tech: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

#76
post #59

[deleted]

Maybe men don't care about working at a beautify salon? More likely though Real Men(TM) don't want to be hairdressers! That's only for flaming homosexuals! Never underestimate the power of a good social taboo. Now, given that there aren't a lot of gender taboos against women working on Wikipedia or in technology startups, then it seems to me that at least the latter has to be a career choice issue. I think there are…

[deleted]

Re: Women in Tech: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

#77
post #75

It's wrong to offer up the idea that women somehow are biologically averse to tech. You need only look outside the US to verify this: Malaysia's tech sector is almost evenly split between men and women. It's a cultural thing, which we're loth to admit. We look around and say, "We treat women the same around here", not thinking for a second that maybe that's the problem. I run the Hackbright Academy, a hacker school f…

Malaysia may not constitute good evidence for it being a cultural thing. Reason: a young male social outcast in Malaysia can't teach himself computer programming the way a young male social outcast in the United States can. So all programmers are college taught, which results in an even gender split. Whereas in the US, male geeks get a head start as kids and intimidate women in college with their accumulated skills.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4062243

Re: Women in Tech: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

#78
post #56
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The low numbers of women in I.T with CS majors, is indicative of this. Are you just trying to enforce a burden of proof here? Or do you seriously not think that woman are ostracised in I.T?

There's a lot of Asian's in IT in the U.S., yet how many are CTO's or CEO's in Silicon Valley? Are Asian's ostracized from upper management?

I'm not sure what point you are driving to.

I was referring world wide, not just U.S.

I suspect, yes, in some countries asian's are ostracised from upper management.

Re: Women in Tech: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If hairdressing were a multi-billion dollar global industry and the foundation of almost the entirety of the future economy that would be more of a problem. Tech, however, is big, important, and getting bigger.

However, if other industries and businesses are indications, as the industry matures, women will come. The internet used to have a 50:1 male to female ratio. Open source software engineering today has a similar ratio (compared to a 2:1 ratio in commercial software houses). Maybe the issue is that women don't want to work in a risky and immature industry. Especially when that involves potentially deferring or even giv…

Sure. But how many decades of unfair treatment and exclusionary culture are we willing to tolerate? Especially when you consider that tech is one of the most lucrative industries at present. How much money are people missing out on because of the exclusionary culture of tech? How much is the industry itself being held back?

Re: Women in Tech: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

#80
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "the bottom of the ladder" do you mean economically? Is your claim that women have a higher earnings floor then men? Could you provide figures?

It's not something you can completely measure economically. A coal miner makes decent money but how do you put a price tag on black lung or being crushed to death? >When I did the research for a book called The Myth of Male Power I discovered a Glass Cellar that holds far more men than the Glass Ceiling. The Glass Cellar consists of the hazardous jobs and the worst jobs (minimum security, low pay, bad conditions). Th…

I'd be cautious of using a 'Glass Cellar' as an excuse not to act on gender inequality.
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