Why it is Awesome to be a Girl in Tech • Hacker News Board

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

#221

Post by rmc » Fri, Nov 02, 2012, 6:33 PM UTC

esrauch wrote: post #216

rmc wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No-one mentioned "seeing an eastern european with a mop". To expand on my analogy, if you met an eastern european/etc. at the company Christmas party, asking "so are you a cleaner?" is presuming negative stereotypes based on race/ethnicity.

Is it a negative stereotype that women are more likely to be designers than developers?

It is a negative stereotype to presume that women cannot be a developer, or do a "hard" subject like programming and instead must be doing a "soft" subject like art.

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

#222

Post by abrahamsen » Fri, Nov 02, 2012, 6:39 PM UTC

bitops wrote: post #217

abrahamsen wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you think of this campaign? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxsMWnK1X7k The tag line is "there is a lot of stuff women don't understand", and the format is a womans literal visualization of a sport metaphor. In this case, "giving away a goal". The campaign is still running, and considered one of the most successful advertising campaigns in Denmark. The company behind it is 80% state owned. and 20% owned by the n…

Yes, that was the one! I'm surprised it's still running. > In our own self image, we are so liberal and open minded that we can safely joke about all kind of stereotypes. So true - I'd say Danes are pretty blind to their own prejudices and backwards attitudes. I'm sure you remember "Perkerspillet" from some years ago? "Perkerspillet", which roughly translates to "The Nigger Game", was an online flash game where the p…

The new politically correct name is "the mujaffa game". You can play it here:

http://www.dr.dk/spil/mujaffa/

The old name is still referred in the title page.

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

#223

Post by nerdess » Fri, Nov 02, 2012, 6:41 PM UTC

RandallBrown wrote: post #38

Articles like this are what are going to get girls into computing. They need to know that there are other normal girls, just like them, that do this for a living. I got my ex-girlfriend into software development. She comes off as a very stereotypical girly girl. She likes clothes, shopping, and top 40 pop music. I convinced her to take an intro programming class her sophomore year of college. Now she's a software eng…

thanks, that is exactly what i want to achieve with my article: pointing out that the tech world is not just for über-nerds :)

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

#224

Post by eliza1wright » Fri, Nov 02, 2012, 6:43 PM UTC

papsosouid wrote: post #215

eliza1wright wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I apologize because I can't find the exact quote, but I believe Miss Manners said something to the effect of "Flirting, when done properly, means that both parties can claim they meant nothing by it." That's the flirting I speak of, the same sort of flirting/friendliness that was originally mentioned. It's foolish to assert that female approval matters, but darn it, no one knows why! It's just the way it is! In my ex…

>That's the flirting I speak of, the same sort of flirting/friendliness that was originally mentioned I was responding to the idea that being single or not has some effect on the scenario. Flirting (whether deniable or not) is neither exclusive to single people, nor required to affect the social status of men you interact with. >It's foolish to assert that female approval matters, but darn it, no one knows why! It is…

"That may well be the case at a subconscious level. But that doesn't go away because any or all of the people involved are in relationships."

Agreed. I'm lucky to work with men who don't seem to be looking for any extramarital dalliances, and our interactions reflect that. Being friendly and warm--what many would consider flirting--isn't required to affect the social status of those I interact with, but it can certainly help. And I think that's something that many people in a monogamous relationship learn to suppress, for various reasons.

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

#225

Post by nerdess » Fri, Nov 02, 2012, 6:49 PM UTC

cbsmith wrote: post #42

I'm starting to think it is impossible for someone to write about gender issues in the tech industry without at least one reference to porn.

my article isn't about gender issues....the intention is merely to show the perks of working in IT to a normal average girl that might not be sure about what career path to choose.

however, my writing style is indeed rather bold but i have no interest of watering it down with some political correctness filter. sorry, no chance :D

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

#226

Post by papsosouid » Fri, Nov 02, 2012, 6:58 PM UTC

eliza1wright wrote: post #224

papsosouid wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That's the flirting I speak of, the same sort of flirting/friendliness that was originally mentioned I was responding to the idea that being single or not has some effect on the scenario. Flirting (whether deniable or not) is neither exclusive to single people, nor required to affect the social status of men you interact with. >It's foolish to assert that female approval matters, but darn it, no one knows why! It is…

"That may well be the case at a subconscious level. But that doesn't go away because any or all of the people involved are in relationships." Agreed. I'm lucky to work with men who don't seem to be looking for any extramarital dalliances, and our interactions reflect that. Being friendly and warm--what many would consider flirting--isn't required to affect the social status of those I interact with, but it can certai…

You lost me. His point only applies to single people because people in monogamous relationships have learned to suppress "being friendly"? I have not seen anything that would suggest that is true, I could not guess the relationship status of anyone in my office based on their friendliness.

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

#227

Post by mamoswined » Fri, Nov 02, 2012, 7:12 PM UTC

eliza1wright wrote: post #180

michaelochurch wrote: post #113

I'll make a controversial observation, but it's worthy of discussion. If you're a woman of average or better looks, you have one under-spoken superpower. Namely, how you interact with other men will have a huge effect on their social status. I'm not talking about overt flirtation (don't do it) or office relationships (avoid, avoid, avoid). I'm talking about more subtle stuff, like who a woman smiles at, who she initi…

I think your theory hinges on the idea that most, if not all, of the players in this scenario are single. I work in a start-up environment with a bunch of men, but most of them are married or in a committed relationship. For what it's worth, I'm engaged. The whole "mysterious feminine influence" thing that you're talking about tends to disappear when people don't see you as a potential romantic/flirting partner. I th…

I think this discussion is missing the fact that women are more likely to enforce social norms http://www.overcomingbias.com/2011/06/women-enforce-norms.ht... Since the workforce at my company has included more women, there is less tolerance for behaviors that were common in the all-male workplace. Men with poor social skills were increasingly pushed out of leadership roles and/or replaced with more congenial employees. I don't think this is a bad thing at all- our clients are much happier, but it highlights the need in tech education to teach social skills. But it does threaten a "bro" culture that many people enjoyed as employees.

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

#228

Post by blazay_blazay » Fri, Nov 02, 2012, 7:24 PM UTC

jrogers65 wrote: post #207

blazay_blazay wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you are opposed to separate male and female lavatories?

I'm starting to get tired of responding to gaslighting comments like these. Do you honestly not understand that males and females are biologically different (and so have preferences for different types of ways to dispose waste), that they have strong emotional reactions when seeing each other nude or partially nude and that they might be embarrassed if a member of the opposite sex heard them taking a shit? For the re…

I honestly understand that quite fine. The GP of my original comment stated "You say that as if letting someone's gender affect your decisions is somehow, magically, inherently always ALWAYS wrong. It isn't." It seems the three of us are in agreement that in the lavatory case letting gender affect decisions (in this case the common decision for one gender only facilities) is not wrong or sexist. Yet you jumped on him/her as a defender of sexism and prejudice when in reality you, and probably everybody else, takes gender into account in many benign or benevolent contexts as well.

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

#229

Post by annableker » Fri, Nov 02, 2012, 7:28 PM UTC

RandallBrown wrote: post #38

Articles like this are what are going to get girls into computing. They need to know that there are other normal girls, just like them, that do this for a living. I got my ex-girlfriend into software development. She comes off as a very stereotypical girly girl. She likes clothes, shopping, and top 40 pop music. I convinced her to take an intro programming class her sophomore year of college. Now she's a software eng…

For real. This girl is obviously being honest and sounds really level-headed/normal. Everything in this article is exactly what I would tell my little sister.

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

#230

Post by mamoswined » Fri, Nov 02, 2012, 7:49 PM UTC

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

If women were really so motivated by money, there would be more of us in tech.

On a more serious note, sometimes I just don't get other women. Yeah, working in fashion, food, or publishing sounds fun, but they aren't getting paid hardly anything and most of them are working as low-level grunts just to be in the industry that sounds fun to them with a small glimmer of hope they might move to the very tiny upper tier in those jobs. To contrast, I have a well-paying job that pays well and after 5, I can actually enjoy food, fashion, and writing for fun. And on the food/fashion front I can afford much higher quality things.