My First Hand Experience With Sexism • Hacker News Board

Re: My First Hand Experience With Sexism

#71

Post by NextUserName » Wed, Mar 12, 2014, 10:25 PM UTC

Do you think that speaking out to the CEO would have changed his mind? I think that if the author really wanted any chance at changing the CEO's mind about women - he should have accepted the job and planted some seeds of thought here and there directly or indirectly to the CEO.

Do you think that proceeding, he would be condoning sexism in some way? Perhaps in his own mind, but one person walking away from a job interview can hardly be considered a boycott.

If you are one person, your best bet to change something is to engage, not walk away.

Re: My First Hand Experience With Sexism

#72

Post by makaveli8 » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 7:03 AM UTC

Am I sexist for assuming that the author was a woman right up until the point where he says "Surprisingly most of my women friends and my wife" ?

Re: My First Hand Experience With Sexism

#73

Post by makaveli8 » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 7:06 AM UTC

NextUserName wrote: post #69

taejo wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The interviewee appears to be a man.

Did anyone else think that this was a women? The title should not be My First Hand Experience With Sexism . Because first hand would have been if sexism was shown toward the author (because of his gender).

EXACTLY! I also read the blog on the assumption that the author was a woman up until he began mention of his wife etc. Does that make us sexist?

Re: My First Hand Experience With Sexism

#74

Post by facepalm » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 9:32 AM UTC

arbutus wrote: post #44

tomp wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand his post the same way. He said that the only sexism prevalent in this industry is the "girls code"-type sexism. Sure, sexism exists everywhere and always, as does racism and other -isms. Simply said, people will be jerks. However, it is unreasonable to draw conclusions for the whole industry based on the behaviour of one such jerk, that just happens to be a male sexist (I'm sure you'd find female s…

I don't need to base my opinion off of one guy's account of an incident in a blog post - I have a laundry list of my own very unpleasant experiences as a female developer to base my opinions on. I've also spoken to a great deal of other women who have a very similar list of very similar experiences. A lot of these experiences have aspects that are specific to the tech industry. If you only have insight into industry…

"A lot of these experiences have aspects that are specific to the tech industry."

Huh - how can the tech industry be more sexist than other industries? Please explain? I mean in what way can such an experience be tech specific? "Woman can't code" comments perhaps, but what else?

Re: My First Hand Experience With Sexism

#75

Post by gagege » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 2:53 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #53

gagege wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? That's like saying, "You have to have been shot by a gun to be able to say 'I've only seen someone get shot one time.'"

It's absolutely nothing like that. I'm not even sure where to start on breaking down how wrong that comparison is. To attempt to mirror your example, it's actually like an Army general sitting in HQ saying "Well, I've only ever seen our guys get shot at once!" when his units are being decimated on the battlefield. (Please don't read into that comparison. I am not actually attempting to compare women to battle-ready s…

I get what you're trying to say now. My point is, if the OP has only seen it happen once, then they've only seen it once. You're denying that they've only observed it one time. That's what I have a problem with, not your sentiment.

You're trying to say, "just because you haven't seen it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen," right?

Re: My First Hand Experience With Sexism

#76

Post by oh_sigh » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 9:35 PM UTC

nawitus wrote: post #45

oh_sigh wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that proved women-run companies makes 15% less profit? Correlation != Causation. What if women are more likely to start companies in fields where profit margins are lower?

Even if correlation is not causation, that's not evidence that causation is not an explanatory factor.

Okay well...go ahead and prove it then.