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Our approach to gender diversity

blog.whiteoctober.co.uk

11–20 of 64 posts

Re: Our approach to gender diversity

#11
post #5

I think this sort of affirmative approach is going to become more common as tech is dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. When I was an engineer, I never worked under a woman in a technical role. Since I've been a lawyer, I've had a majority of female bosses and mentors. 50 years ago, this would have been unthinkable. Doctors, accountants, and many other professionals can tell the same story. Today nob…

Nobody may be thinking twice about the head of internal medicine being a woman. But they do about just regular physicians. > We find that the median female (but not male) primary-care physician would have been financially better off becoming a physician assistant. This result is partially due to a gender-wage gap in medicine. However, it is mostly driven by the fact that the median female physician simply doesn’t wor…

That's a very different meaning of "thinking twice" than the one rayiner used.

Re: Our approach to gender diversity

#13
post #7
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is their inclusion of transgender, gender dysphoric, gay, and lesbian speakers? Also, where are all the non-white/asian/indian speakers? I think this is going to require a bigger spreadsheet!

The Tech industry has many male asian speakers, I suspect there is still a strong white-male majority (I can't find any reliable figures) but asian (men) are the other race who seem to be well established in the world of IT . We do have incredibly talented transgendered speakers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Wilson and at least one very talented asian transgendered speaker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_…

> It is notable that both these are transgendered women I don't know of any transgendered men.

Might be because trans men in tech are men and thus "the norm"? Further, maybe most of them weren't in tech or high-profile before transition? Both Tang and Wilson were high-profile before transitioning.

(no evidence or anything, just providing possible working hypothesis).

Re: Our approach to gender diversity

#14
post #7
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is their inclusion of transgender, gender dysphoric, gay, and lesbian speakers? Also, where are all the non-white/asian/indian speakers? I think this is going to require a bigger spreadsheet!

The Tech industry has many male asian speakers, I suspect there is still a strong white-male majority (I can't find any reliable figures) but asian (men) are the other race who seem to be well established in the world of IT . We do have incredibly talented transgendered speakers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Wilson and at least one very talented asian transgendered speaker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_…

> It is notable that both these are transgendered women I don't know of any transgendered men.

Tim Chevalier, of Rust - http://catamorphism.org

Re: Our approach to gender diversity

#15
post #5

I think this sort of affirmative approach is going to become more common as tech is dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. When I was an engineer, I never worked under a woman in a technical role. Since I've been a lawyer, I've had a majority of female bosses and mentors. 50 years ago, this would have been unthinkable. Doctors, accountants, and many other professionals can tell the same story. Today nob…

Nobody may be thinking twice about the head of internal medicine being a woman. But they do about just regular physicians. > We find that the median female (but not male) primary-care physician would have been financially better off becoming a physician assistant. This result is partially due to a gender-wage gap in medicine. However, it is mostly driven by the fact that the median female physician simply doesn’t wor…

[deleted]

Re: Our approach to gender diversity

#16
that makes absolutely no sense at all, you should invite the speaker by experience and knowledge and not anything else, the criteria should be technical and not political.

If there was a selection criteria of newbie then you could select women over men more aggressively.

I know a few great female developers but then you have to hope that they have the skills for public speaking.

This needs to be done at the grass roots, not at the top level.

But saying that, any top level female developer should be automatically included. There are some no doubt but they need to turn up.

Re: Our approach to gender diversity

#17
post #5

I think this sort of affirmative approach is going to become more common as tech is dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. When I was an engineer, I never worked under a woman in a technical role. Since I've been a lawyer, I've had a majority of female bosses and mentors. 50 years ago, this would have been unthinkable. Doctors, accountants, and many other professionals can tell the same story. Today nob…

Nobody may be thinking twice about the head of internal medicine being a woman. But they do about just regular physicians. > We find that the median female (but not male) primary-care physician would have been financially better off becoming a physician assistant. This result is partially due to a gender-wage gap in medicine. However, it is mostly driven by the fact that the median female physician simply doesn’t wor…

Banking is more overtly sexist but banks have policies to hire women so you have more women in "front-line" roles. 14% of partners at Goldman Sachs are women. In which tech company are 14% of executives in technical roles (not HR or marketing) women?

Re: Our approach to gender diversity

#18
post #12

> Ours is a male-dominated industry – and weaker for it Has this ever actually been shown? I hear it a lot but have never heard any evidence either way. (the latter part)

Amen. Furthermore, if diversity in thought is the goal, surely diversity across nationality and even age produces the greater aggregate effect, no? I.e., if the starting point of discussion were only ever how best to increase diversity of thought, one would undoubtedly expect nationality/age to come up more frequently than they do, compared to gender. It's almost as if certain parties are feigning genuine inquiry while merely paying hollow lip service. But what could their motivation possibly be?

>Tickets for All Your Base are on sale now, and we look forward to seeing you in October.

John, you rascal!

Re: Our approach to gender diversity

#19
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Tech industry has many male asian speakers, I suspect there is still a strong white-male majority (I can't find any reliable figures) but asian (men) are the other race who seem to be well established in the world of IT . We do have incredibly talented transgendered speakers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Wilson and at least one very talented asian transgendered speaker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_…

> It is notable that both these are transgendered women I don't know of any transgendered men. Might be because trans men in tech are men and thus "the norm"? Further, maybe most of them weren't in tech or high-profile before transition? Both Tang and Wilson were high-profile before transitioning. (no evidence or anything, just providing possible working hypothesis).

I am so confused, now. When we speak of a trans[$], is the noun used supposed to be the source-sex or the target-sex? I know it is common courtesy to refer to a person as their current preferred/identified gender, so does that apply to this terminology, too?

That is, a transgender man would not be a man who became a woman, but a woman who is now a man?

Re: Our approach to gender diversity

#20
post #12

> Ours is a male-dominated industry – and weaker for it Has this ever actually been shown? I hear it a lot but have never heard any evidence either way. (the latter part)

The evidence from other industries and organizations is pretty compelling. Including women gets you better decision-making overall: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130326101616.ht...

Given the record of industries that have reformed to include more women, I would not bet on there being very many "naturally male" businesses. Especially not ones that have a lot of sitting and typing involved.

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