Instead of supporting feminist policies that help privileged women at the expense of underprivileged men, why not push for underprivileged people to join the tech field?
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Stop complaining about the lack of women in tech
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Re: Stop complaining about the lack of women in tech
#12Instead of supporting feminist policies that help privileged women at the expense of underprivileged men, why not push for underprivileged people to join the tech field?
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Re: Stop complaining about the lack of women in tech
#13Can we start complaining about all the startups blogging for HN instead?
Re: Stop complaining about the lack of women in tech
#14Being told that female students fair poorly in STEM subjects, or that the tech industry is lacking in female programmers, for instance, can reinforce those beliefs within women’s minds, leading them to confirm those stereotypes themselves. Beliefs? Stereotypes? Those are facts, dude. As things currently stand, women do perform more poorly than men in STEM, and their numbers are lacking in tech. And what are we suppos…
Can you provide a citation for your claim that women in the tech field more often feel treated as sex objects than women in other fields?
I only have anecdotal experience, but I know I see more suggestive images with ladies as the subject in videogames and "hipster" tech companies than say... in AT&T.
I mean, check the logo for this twitter page out for example: https://twitter.com/redistogo
Do others on HN think that image is appropriate? I don't.
Re: Stop complaining about the lack of women in tech
#15Being told that female students fair poorly in STEM subjects, or that the tech industry is lacking in female programmers, for instance, can reinforce those beliefs within women’s minds, leading them to confirm those stereotypes themselves. Beliefs? Stereotypes? Those are facts, dude. As things currently stand, women do perform more poorly than men in STEM, and their numbers are lacking in tech. And what are we suppos…
Beliefs? Stereotypes? Those are facts, dude.
It turns out that which facts you focus on affects your performance. Reminding women of all of the negatives makes them less likely to succeed. That's worth remembering.
Speaking of which facts you focus on, did you notice that the article was not written by a dude?
Re: Stop complaining about the lack of women in tech
#16The goal of getting women into tech should be to equalize the gender ratio of the people who actually are in tech to that of the people who want to be in tech. That's the real balance that we need to reach for -- and unlike what many people seem to think, this ratio is not necessarily 50%.
Establishing what someone wants is based out of a massive social and cultural impression someone perceives their identity through.
Thus, advertising.
We're trying to fix the advertising.
Re: Stop complaining about the lack of women in tech
#17Instead of supporting feminist policies that help privileged women at the expense of underprivileged men, why not push for underprivileged people to join the tech field?
I've often wondered if our "divide and conquer" approach to dealing with various inequalities is missing the point, and in pursuing specific, targeted policies, we're simply exacerbating the problem
Re: Stop complaining about the lack of women in tech
#18The goals of this post are noble, and I almost agree with the conclusion. How the post gets there seems to be based out of a very negative conflation. How is the lack of women in the tech industry, and the offensive notion that women fair poorly in STEM subjects for no other reason than they're women uttered in the same breath? They shouldn't be for the very same reasons as this post extolls. > Being told that female…
>Anyone who believes that women inherently do worse in STEM subjects needs to be called out, in the most negative of terms. No one should say it, period.
Outside of a university context, I would agree with you. Statements like this are the reason tenure is still needed in a university setting. No axiom should be sacred if we genuinely care about understanding the world and making the world a better place for everyone.
Re: Stop complaining about the lack of women in tech
#19The goal of getting women into tech should be to equalize the gender ratio of the people who actually are in tech to that of the people who want to be in tech. That's the real balance that we need to reach for -- and unlike what many people seem to think, this ratio is not necessarily 50%.
Why do you think this ratio is currently around 25%? Do you think it's because women are inherently much less interested in tech? Or do you think it's because our society imposes stereotypes and values on women, and gives very "macho" impressions (often based in reality) about what work in tech is like, which leads women who would otherwise want to study and work in tech not want to?
Fixing the culture of tech and the role of gender in our society more broadly is a major part of what's needed to deal with these issues. And part of that is helping some women--and mean--realize that they want to be in tech despite false impressions they have about their abilities and what working in tech means.
Re: Stop complaining about the lack of women in tech
#20What a poorly researched article. The author takes one study on test scores and extrapolates it out to the whole career field. And her whole solution is "be positive, don't be negative". Well, isn't that common sense?