Live data from Hacker News

Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

nerdess.net

11–20 of 271 posts

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#12
Someone should write an article about being a black person in tech. Or maybe an Irish person in Tech, we need more of those. It's tough for the Irish in Tech, they get no respect. So many Irish never even consider a career in Tech because it's not a traditional industry for Irish to be employed in. I want to help break down barriers by being an Irish person in Tech.

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#13

"If a male and a female developer with a similar skill level apply for a job, I bet that in 99.9% of the cases the girl will get the job." That looks like sexism to me.

If the qualification is equal I would very much hope that the person that increases diversity is hired. Why would you do anything else?

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#15

"If a male and a female developer with a similar skill level apply for a job, I bet that in 99.9% of the cases the girl will get the job." That looks like sexism to me.

Too hypothetical anyway. Skill level, or more precisely the interviewers' opinion of it, is never precisely equal between candidates. It includes soft skills besides programming.

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#16
post #13

"If a male and a female developer with a similar skill level apply for a job, I bet that in 99.9% of the cases the girl will get the job." That looks like sexism to me.

If the qualification is equal I would very much hope that the person that increases diversity is hired. Why would you do anything else?

I would probably pick the person that meshes with the team best rather than the one that panders to my internal sense of injustice.

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#18
post #13

"If a male and a female developer with a similar skill level apply for a job, I bet that in 99.9% of the cases the girl will get the job." That looks like sexism to me.

If the qualification is equal I would very much hope that the person that increases diversity is hired. Why would you do anything else?

Actually, it makes more business sense to hire the person who fits in best with the current team. If sexual diversity is the goal, kudos for sexism, hire the female.

Where all other qualifications are equal, companies should hire the person who best fits the team strictly on a personality basis. If a man were hired over a woman at a mostly-female company because of diversification policies, I would still consider that sexism.

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#19
post #4

"This is a bit of a delicate topic. Quite often I am the only female person in the team and have to be careful not to take advantage of the perks that come with it. Guys are fascinated and scared by girls who roll up their sleeves and take on a job that society labels as “men’s work”. If you’ve ever drilled a hole, skinned a rabbit, or changed a tyre you know what I mean. As I mentioned earlier, guys will definitely…

This sounds alien to me as well. I've been a member of a lot of diverse teams, and led some of them, over the years. While it's true that female tech people are always outnumbered by male ones, what that actually means probably depends a lot on culture. My experiences are almost exclusively in Northern Europe and Asia and generally I didn't perceive that female devs got any special treatment at all (negative or positive).

If Nerdess extracts some sort of empowerment out of this that's great for her, but I imagine crossing the line into a territory where your team mates perceive you as a shallow and malicious manipulator is a real danger here. Any person who bases their work persona exclusively on being a precious snowflake (of any kind) is not someone I'd like to have on my team.

Re: Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

#20
post #4

"This is a bit of a delicate topic. Quite often I am the only female person in the team and have to be careful not to take advantage of the perks that come with it. Guys are fascinated and scared by girls who roll up their sleeves and take on a job that society labels as “men’s work”. If you’ve ever drilled a hole, skinned a rabbit, or changed a tyre you know what I mean. As I mentioned earlier, guys will definitely…

Maybe we have worked in different environments than nerdess. I've had quite a few jobs (at software companies in the US) where most of my colleagues are calm, mature, and act like professionals without regard to gender. I've also encountered the occasional colleague (a bit more often in startup/freelance culture) who acts like females are a new and unfamiliar technology, and doesn't know how to relate in appropriate ways. But I've never felt particularly "powerful" in my workplace, until I started doing most of my work from my home office.
Post reply on HN