Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Female Founders Conference

femalefoundersconference.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 112 posts

Re: Female Founders Conference

#51

Post by yetanotherphd »

tomasien wrote: post #37

This thread made me want to cry..... this thread..... oh my god you guys this thread is so awful! Does anyone have ideas about what could be done to educate against the constant same old "If it's just for women, it's sexism, same as if we said something was just for men" crap? I mean this is basically internet discussion canon at this point. As a side note, we COULD have a conference just for men if it was aimed (as…

>Does anyone have ideas about what could be done to educate...

Well the problem with debate is that everyone wants to "educate" the other side. So my idea is that you prove you are actually right, and then maybe people will accept your views.

Re: Female Founders Conference

#52

Post by MartinCron »

tomasien wrote: post #37

This thread made me want to cry..... this thread..... oh my god you guys this thread is so awful! Does anyone have ideas about what could be done to educate against the constant same old "If it's just for women, it's sexism, same as if we said something was just for men" crap? I mean this is basically internet discussion canon at this point. As a side note, we COULD have a conference just for men if it was aimed (as…

Does anyone have ideas about what could be done to educate against the constant same old "If it's just for women, it's sexism, same as if we said something was just for men" crap? I mean this is basically internet discussion canon at this point

At this point, you have to believe that comments like this (along with the "why no programs to get more male teachers?" gem) are pure trolling and not people trying to express new or compelling ideas.

I mean, do these guys think that they are such brilliant thinkers that they are the first ever to try apply symmetry to an asymmetrical context?

Re: Female Founders Conference

#53

Post by yetanotherphd »

I think that women are often put off by the nasty, aggressive vibe in tech. No one wants to go into an industry where they will get sworn at, or have snide remarks made at them. Here are some examples just from this thread:

>you're pretty fucking ignorant and stubborn and just dickish on the whole.

>no need to get your panties in a bunch over this.

>Could you kindly s tfu please?

Re: Female Founders Conference

#54

Post by tomasien »

yetanotherphd wrote: post #51
tomasien wrote: post #37

This thread made me want to cry..... this thread..... oh my god you guys this thread is so awful! Does anyone have ideas about what could be done to educate against the constant same old "If it's just for women, it's sexism, same as if we said something was just for men" crap? I mean this is basically internet discussion canon at this point. As a side note, we COULD have a conference just for men if it was aimed (as…

>Does anyone have ideas about what could be done to educate... Well the problem with debate is that everyone wants to "educate" the other side. So my idea is that you prove you are actually right, and then maybe people will accept your views.

That's actually not terrible. That's a pretty good thought framework for thinking about this problem I think.

Re: Female Founders Conference

#55

Post by adammil »

tomasien wrote: post #37

This thread made me want to cry..... this thread..... oh my god you guys this thread is so awful! Does anyone have ideas about what could be done to educate against the constant same old "If it's just for women, it's sexism, same as if we said something was just for men" crap? I mean this is basically internet discussion canon at this point. As a side note, we COULD have a conference just for men if it was aimed (as…

You can have a female founders conference, whose purpose is to uplift women, and allow men to be there as well. True story: I once attended a "women in tech" style conference as a hiring manager looking for potential recruits, and I won a random drawing for a prize. It was a purse with a company logo on it. Yes, it felt pretty sexist that no one expected a man would be there.

Re: Female Founders Conference

#56

Post by limedaring »

iandanforth wrote: post #4

Questions for the women of HN. Do you see gender specific events as something that will fade away with time? Are they something you are comfortable with being part of society for the foreseeable future?

Perhaps, but people who are similar in some way (in this case, gender and profession) will always want to meet in a specialized way. Conferences are already specialized (CSS conferences, JS conferences, conferences for health startups, conferences for email marketing...)

Like it or not, being a female founder is way harder than being a male founder. Raising money is so much harder since you don't fit the Mark Zuckerburg stereotype. A friend of mine hid her pregnancy while raising money because she didn't want to be asked whether she was committed or not - would a guy with a pregnant wife be asked the same?

So yes, personally — I am very excited about this conference and meeting other female founders and talking to them about their experiences. Finding other people like me. Definitely comfortable with these kind of conferences being a part of society because I find a lot of women don't want to start a company since it's even harder than being a dude, and I want that to change.

Re: Female Founders Conference

#57

Post by tomasien »

tomasien wrote: post #37

This thread made me want to cry..... this thread..... oh my god you guys this thread is so awful! Does anyone have ideas about what could be done to educate against the constant same old "If it's just for women, it's sexism, same as if we said something was just for men" crap? I mean this is basically internet discussion canon at this point. As a side note, we COULD have a conference just for men if it was aimed (as…

I decided to write up a quick blog for public discussion outside of this thread

Blog: http://istommydrunk.svbtle.com/the-maleonly-version-of-the-f...

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7099636

If anyone wants to find it on the front page, it's there

Re: Female Founders Conference

#58

Post by zequel »

kyro wrote: post #35
rimantas wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every single tech conference did not allow girls? Really?

I've got a question for you. Blacks are incredibly underrepresented in the medical field (13% in the US population, 4% as physicians). Some believe it to be due to the damaging effects of medical experiments conducted on African Americans -- eg. the Tuskegee experiment where many were purposefully left untreated for syphilis despite the existence of a simple treatment (read: penicillin). Other reasons include the lac…

the Tuskegee experiment??

Just no, no no no. I don't think any black person nowadays thinks "Wow, can't go into the medical field because of that experiment that happened 40 years ago!" That's just illogical.

Re: Female Founders Conference

#59

Post by dkhenry »

kyro wrote: post #32
dkhenry wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who might not have the ability to succeed in the wider market are encouraged to start and then drop out and they extend the perception that females aren't suited to be start-up founders

That you take an event like this meant to inspire and empower an underrepresented group and interpret its implication to mean that said group is somehow inferior to the majority is just a remarkable level of mental gymnastics. You are essentially in support of no form of supportive outreach that targets a specific group because the act of targeting alone implies a kind of special assistance for the less capable.

Actually I would be against most forms of target supportive outreach. The one exception would be experiential targeting ( I have no issues with a "First time founders" conference ) I don't subscribe to the notion that the way to fix the imbalance in anything is to treat groups of individuals special. That has never worked through all of history so I don't know why we think it will start working now.

Re: Female Founders Conference

#60

Post by wellboy »

Crake wrote: post #38
wellboy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you kindly s tfu please? Women do simply have it much harder than men in tech and if you even criticize them for trying to build a community, you do a lot of harm to the whole industry and will scare away even more women from becoming interested in tech. With statements like yours, you are making sure that the gender divide becomes bigger and bigger and that people become very sensitive and insecure when discus…

Feminists are probably the #1 force for scaring away women from tech. If you say something is true enough times (All men might rape you! Programmers all hate women!), especially from a position of power and political influence, people will start to believe it. Encouraging and (in some cases, like donglegate) inducing both an atmosphere of fear and paranoia in and towards women is incredibly detrimental towards the ge…

> women don't really have it hard at all in tech + affirmative action

I'm sorry, but the facts are all against what you were saying. I've read numerous stories about female programmers having a hard time fitting in at work, facing prejudice all the time etc. Same about female tech-founders.

You might be right in the business world or more "female-like" industries such as fashion, but definitely not in tech.

Post reply on HN