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Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech

nerdess.net

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

#71

Post by saraid216 »

borplk wrote: post #24
atomical wrote: 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…

Honestly the whole nerd thing is a completely western (mostly American) thing. I have a very different background and we don't even have a word for "nerd". The absolute closest synonym you can find is "really smart" which is positive, and a negative one would be "bookworm". And these western stereotypes are absolutely non-existent. If you ask people in the streets to tell you general traits about 'the nerds' they won…

Who is "we", btw?

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

#73

Post by pyre »

Evbn wrote: post #60
mattdw wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WTF. How is this ever acceptable in a professional context? Talk about hostility.

Professionals are at work. Goofs are at "events".

There are still plenty of professionals at events, and even presenting at events.

This sort of stuff seems more a part of "brogrammer" culture. The idea that you need to make a name for yourself by being edgy/offensive.

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

#75

Post by astrofinch »

minamea wrote: post #70

"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."…

I think from a harm minimization perspective, it makes sense to treat complaints of sexism from the minority faction more seriously than complaints of sexism from the majority faction.

Also, I disagree that people would complain if the same stuff was written by a guy working in nursing.

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

#76

Post by jackpirate »

bitops wrote: post #31
atomical wrote: 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…

> Sounds like an alternate reality. I have a hunch that part of this is related to the fact that nerdess is German. Or at least, she's based in Germany per the site. I'm from Denmark (and a guy), and I can say from firsthand experience that attitudes towards women in Europe are still very old-school. Not everywhere, certainly, and Europeans are open-minded liberal socialists etc, but behind the scenes the old attitud…

That same attitude exists in the states too.

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

#78

Post by hdragomir »

electrozoic wrote: post #22
victorhn wrote: post #11

"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.

I sincerely hope that I've never been a pity/diversity hire. I want to be evaluated on my qualifications as a well-rounded developer and compensated appropriately for my work.

I'm sure you weren't. Why would you even think that, since you're doing great work, most probably.

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

#79

Post by JonnieCache »

atomical wrote: 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…

Just wanted to echo this. 99% of the hackers/programmers/whatever I've met, whether in industry or at university have been pretty normal. In fact, the cleverest and most productive ones have tended to be more socially successful, not less. Tech people I've met actually tend to have more enlightened views on women/gender than the population at large.

Where it does start to get weird, in my experience, is when it starts to cross over into the gaming/anime/fandom area, particularly gaming. Some of those people are really maladjusted, but I suppose that's to be expected from a subculture based around endlessly celebrating childrens toys.

There must be some generational/geographical divide here somewhere. For reference I'm in the UK.

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

#80

Post by Adirael »

gprasanth wrote: post #63

"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.

I don't think women are naturally better (than men) at raising kids. That's what a lot of people thinks and single dads are automatically diminished. Not good.
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