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Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

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

#61

Post by [deleted] »

tankbot wrote: post #52
Jun8 wrote: post #32

OK, nobody commented this up to now but I think is important: Among the many posts about this subject I've read on HN recently this was absolutely the best: Not only it approached the matter in a no-nonsense, practical matter without preaching from "the height of an unwritten book" or an axe to grind but it also gives excellent advice to young girls who want to venture into the field. With posts like this I wish ther…

Definitely agree! I like that her opinions are her opinions and not some pendulum-swinging doctrine. Bookmarked for future perusal for sure!

[deleted]

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

#62

Post by saraid216 »

Jun8 wrote: post #32

OK, nobody commented this up to now but I think is important: Among the many posts about this subject I've read on HN recently this was absolutely the best: Not only it approached the matter in a no-nonsense, practical matter without preaching from "the height of an unwritten book" or an axe to grind but it also gives excellent advice to young girls who want to venture into the field. With posts like this I wish ther…

The clearest reason for this, AFAICT, is because she's speaking primarily to women and trying to convince them to come on board. It's not at all about sexism; it merely acknowledges it in passing and hurries on quickly because it's a touchy subject.

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

#63

Post by gprasanth »

"Guys are fascinated and scared by girls who roll up their sleeves and take on a job that society labels as “men’s work”"

I always opined that, "women have a lot of emotional strength". You can just imagine how difficult it is to take care of, and raise a toddler. It is so hard. But, somehow women are naturally good at this, and I am just as fascinated by this fact.

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

#64

Post by d0mine »

sandollars wrote: post #34

Progress is being made, but there is still a long way to go. This happened in a talk at a programming/web/tech event two weeks ago: http://i.imgur.com/4hL6X.jpg

It is funny that it is ok to exploit nerd stereotypes as demonstrated in the article (nobody cares about yet another nerd in a basement picture).

Do you think that the author of the article sees all programmers through the lenses of the stereotype?

The picture that you've linked is in bad taste but it won't change the popularity of the stereotype behind it in any way.

Do you think that the author of the presentation sees all models through the lenses of the stereotype?

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

#65

Post by zh »

sounders wrote: post #56
zh wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like this any more. That's why recently there are so many "software engineers" - you write your Ruby code, install and configure NginX, Passenger etc., even support a cluster of machines (LB, DB, Apps), maybe with a little help for Chef.

I think it's interesting that people with a computer science and technical background are often referred to as "engineers" in tech. It seems like such a general label that can apply to anyone from a chemical engineer to a CS major, it all depends on the context.

At least in university I went, first 2 years was pretty much general engineering, with chemistry and biology etc. included. Even now, most of grantpas and grantmas around, I'm speaking with, if I tell them, that I'm engineer, they trying to ask me to fix their TV/computer/washing machine etc. In most cases, I'm trying...

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

#67

Post by moistgorilla »

arrrg wrote: post #53
abduhl wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If you think someone doesn’t fir your team because of their gender there is something seriously wrong with you.

He didn't say he would...

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

#68

Post by sirmarksalot »

d0mine wrote: post #64
sandollars wrote: post #34

Progress is being made, but there is still a long way to go. This happened in a talk at a programming/web/tech event two weeks ago: http://i.imgur.com/4hL6X.jpg

It is funny that it is ok to exploit nerd stereotypes as demonstrated in the article (nobody cares about yet another nerd in a basement picture). Do you think that the author of the article sees all programmers through the lenses of the stereotype? The picture that you've linked is in bad taste but it won't change the popularity of the stereotype behind it in any way. Do you think that the author of the presentation…

Do we really need to coin the phrase "hacker privilege?"

Look, I know it sucked in school, being ostracized for having technical interests, but now you're grown-up and loaded. As part of a larger social agenda, I can see some harm in perpetuating these geek stereotypes, but on a personal level, you are not being exploited, so quit whining.

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

#69

Post by rat87 »

orangethirty wrote: post #39
nickporter wrote: post #5

Why is it that people group IT and software development together? To me, they are two completely different fields. For example, I see an IT person as a mail server administrator in a large company, and a developer as the person who would write the mail server software. I'm not saying that an IT professional never writes code, or a developer won't ever touch a Nginx config file. I just mean they are two different type…

class Computer: pass class IT(Computer): pass class SoftwareDeveloment(Computer): pass #that's how people see it.

old style object or python 3?

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

#70

Post by minamea »

"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."

"you can get away with a lot of things just by fluttering your eyelashes and being a bit cheeky, which is a habit that is so easy to get into. I have to confess I’ve done it myself because if you are surrounded by guys all day you quickly feel powerful."

"Technical directors are really keen to hire girls because we boost the morale."

"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."

These are all very sexist remarks. If the equivalent has been written from a male's perspective it would have been an outrage.

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