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Devops needs feminism

danslimmon.wordpress.com

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Re: Devops needs feminism

#2
The current title on HN of "Feminism is to equality as metrics are to performance" is far more interesting than the title at the blog of "Devops needs feminism", but it's never really elucidated.

Re: Devops needs feminism

#3
The term 'equality' is frequently used there, but never defined, which seems odd for an article that revolves around performance metrics used as a metaphor for feminism.

Re: Devops needs feminism

#4
I can't express how infuriating I find the "we just need to treat everyone equally, that's it!" type of comments, and these analogies help me understand why. It's like saying "we just need to write maintainable modular code, that's it!"

Re: Devops needs feminism

#5
post #4

I can't express how infuriating I find the "we just need to treat everyone equally, that's it!" type of comments, and these analogies help me understand why. It's like saying "we just need to write maintainable modular code, that's it!"

I am more infuriated by the idea that if women are underrepresented in technical fields, it must be the fault of the men in those technical fields. After all, if men would just treat women equally, then women would represent half the workforce in those fields, right?

Women are underrepresented in applications to engineering school. Are adults who are already in the workforce responsible for that? Do high school girls somehow sense the "hostile environment" in engineering schools before they spend a single day there? If we want to actually solve this problem, we need to go all the way to the beginning: middle school, where girls mysteriously start losing interest in technical fields.

Re: Devops needs feminism

#6
post #4

I can't express how infuriating I find the "we just need to treat everyone equally, that's it!" type of comments, and these analogies help me understand why. It's like saying "we just need to write maintainable modular code, that's it!"

I am more infuriated by the idea that if women are underrepresented in technical fields, it must be the fault of the men in those technical fields. After all, if men would just treat women equally, then women would represent half the workforce in those fields, right? Women are underrepresented in applications to engineering school . Are adults who are already in the workforce responsible for that? Do high school girl…

> I am more infuriated by the idea that if women are underrepresented in technical fields, it must be the fault of the men in those technical fields.

Who's saying that?

> If we want to actually solve this problem, we need to go all the way to the beginning: middle school, where girls mysteriously start losing interest in technical fields.

What do you mean by "go to middle school" - who do you suggest should take what action in that particular venue?

> mysteriously

What's mysterious about it? What expectations do you have that this observation runs counter to? What needs to be changed in our mental model of this system, so that instead of this being a mystery it becomes a predictable of the system's properties? (At which point we can start asking "how to change the system so that we get different outcomes".)

(This is me being curious, not Socratic, BTW.)

Re: Devops needs feminism

#7
Lots of human groups are underrepresented in technology (africans, older people, latinos etc). Why are feminists the only ones that always make it to the frontpage (even superficial pieces like this one)?

Re: Devops needs feminism

#8
post #4

I can't express how infuriating I find the "we just need to treat everyone equally, that's it!" type of comments, and these analogies help me understand why. It's like saying "we just need to write maintainable modular code, that's it!"

I am more infuriated by the idea that if women are underrepresented in technical fields, it must be the fault of the men in those technical fields. After all, if men would just treat women equally, then women would represent half the workforce in those fields, right? Women are underrepresented in applications to engineering school . Are adults who are already in the workforce responsible for that? Do high school girl…

> Do high school girls somehow sense the "hostile environment" in engineering schools before they spend a single day there?

Quite possibly, potentially in cultural portrayals of what goes on there. This isn't to say that necessarily is the cause, but you've by no means clearly demonstrated the lack of causal relationship you seem to think you have.

Re: Devops needs feminism

#9
post #7

Lots of human groups are underrepresented in technology (africans, older people, latinos etc). Why are feminists the only ones that always make it to the frontpage (even superficial pieces like this one)?

Hypothesis one: Women are a majority of the population; Their absence is more surprising, and the number of people interested in changing it is higher.

Hypothesis two: There is a perception that the absence of women in tech is more a function of tech culture than broader socioeconomic issues (e.g. There's no racial equivalent of "Code Like a Pornstar")

Hypothesis Three: It's possible that the female gap is bigger than that of other groups.

Re: Devops needs feminism

#10
post #7

Lots of human groups are underrepresented in technology (africans, older people, latinos etc). Why are feminists the only ones that always make it to the frontpage (even superficial pieces like this one)?

Why do people instantly put up ideological blinders at the first mention of feminism in response to an interesting article?

I mean, do you find anything at all objectionable in what it says? Please share! Or a subtlety that it leaves out? Totally!

I agree with you that racial issues are underemphasized in technical communities, and in the same way we should use feminism as a framework for achieving the organizational and social goal of equality, we should try to do the same for race.

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