Live data from Hacker News

Any female engineers in San Diego interested in showing my daughter their work?

news.ycombinator.com

91–100 of 171 posts

Re: Any female engineers in San Diego interested in showing my daughter their work?

#91
post #19

You sound sexist. Are you sexist? Why female engineers? Are male engineers not up to the challenge of instructing your offspring?

http://i.imgur.com/KgoIF.gif I'm so glad everyone downvoted you.

This comment is nowhere near as bad as the others, but it's still bad. It's fluff that contains no information; it's playing with being provocative, and that link! don't get me started.

Re: Any female engineers in San Diego interested in showing my daughter their work?

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any female engineers in San Diego... It means San Diego.

The title had been modified. Go away with your snark.

Please don't tell people rude things like "Go away" on HN.

We appreciate efforts to combat snark, but the cure must be better than the disease.

Re: Any female engineers in San Diego interested in showing my daughter their work?

#94
Hi Niels! If you end up finding something interesting for your daughter, I think HN would love to hear about it. I know I would. Consider this an invitation for her to write something about it and post it here and/or for you to write something about it and post it here.

I have to say I envied you for a moment. My daughter once enjoyed an afternoon with me at the REPL, but then politely made it clear that we wouldn't need to do it again.

Re: Any female engineers in San Diego interested in showing my daughter their work?

#95

Why do you need a woman? I don't understand why we all talk about the gender problem in engineering, then continue it by isolating female students from male teachers. There is no isolation between male students and female teachers, or same gender students and teachers. If we want to move towards equality, why carefully structure inequality in?

I believe the idea behind this would be that a woman can guide her more and talk to her about the potential problems she faced.

Consider it like getting an advice on getting into a good college from someone who got in using Affirmative Action vs someone who didn't.

Re: Any female engineers in San Diego interested in showing my daughter their work?

#96

Why do you need a woman? I don't understand why we all talk about the gender problem in engineering, then continue it by isolating female students from male teachers. There is no isolation between male students and female teachers, or same gender students and teachers. If we want to move towards equality, why carefully structure inequality in?

Because chances are, she's not isolated from male teachers, and even if she is, the need to offer a relatable role model is more important to inspire and motivate her than the need to not isolate her from male teachers.

Over the past 8 years, I've taught programming to people from ages 6 to 50, of all genders and cultural backgrounds. Female students have generally related more to my female colleagues, just like black students generally relate more to my black colleagues. Which is perfectly fine, and why you want a diverse set of educators in the first place.

Re: Any female engineers in San Diego interested in showing my daughter their work?

#97

Why do you need a woman? I don't understand why we all talk about the gender problem in engineering, then continue it by isolating female students from male teachers. There is no isolation between male students and female teachers, or same gender students and teachers. If we want to move towards equality, why carefully structure inequality in?

It's important to be able to see people who look like your potential future self. There's more to it than just seeing neat work - everyone needs role models.

Kids are very perceptive. This girl sounds lucky to have parents who encourage her in STEM topics, but that doesn't shield her from media/misguided school teachers/councillors/other kids telling her these things aren't for her. Having a female role model is a powerful thing.

Re: Any female engineers in San Diego interested in showing my daughter their work?

#98
post #89
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is also out of line. Two wrongs do not make a right, and personal attacks are absolutely unwelcome on Hacker News. It doesn't matter how provocative the other person was being. When you see something provocative on HN, please reflect before responding. Fighting poison with poison makes things worse. Please either add comments that make things better, or no comments. When responding to a toxic comment, re…

Off topic, but thanks for wading in and describing the moderator viewpoint, even if it isn't fun. :) I think more moderator transparency is helpful, even if it ends up being something I disagree with[1]. [1] Not anything that I saw in this thread, just theoretically.

Sure. It's an experiment to see if we can help get things on track by putting feedback into the system. Also, the community needs a good dose of responsiveness, and I'm able to do that now.

My answer to the no-fun bit is that it's temporary. :)

Re: Any female engineers in San Diego interested in showing my daughter their work?

#99

Why do you need a woman? I don't understand why we all talk about the gender problem in engineering, then continue it by isolating female students from male teachers. There is no isolation between male students and female teachers, or same gender students and teachers. If we want to move towards equality, why carefully structure inequality in?

I believe the idea behind this would be that a woman can guide her more and talk to her about the potential problems she faced. Consider it like getting an advice on getting into a good college from someone who got in using Affirmative Action vs someone who didn't.

>>Consider it like getting an advice on getting into a good college from someone who got in using Affirmative Action vs someone who didn't.

A better analogy would be considering someone getting into a good college because of their connections & wealthy parents vs someone who didn't.

Re: Any female engineers in San Diego interested in showing my daughter their work?

#100

Why do you need a woman? I don't understand why we all talk about the gender problem in engineering, then continue it by isolating female students from male teachers. There is no isolation between male students and female teachers, or same gender students and teachers. If we want to move towards equality, why carefully structure inequality in?

> Why do you need a woman?

Because role models are a great thing thing for a young person to have. Why is it a problem for him to want a female role model for a female child? Why do you think that "wanting his daughter to meet a female engineer" represents inequality? Do you think that it would somehow be more equal for women to only have male role models?

Post reply on HN