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A hilariously sad tale of gender bias

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Re: A hilariously sad tale of gender bias

#73

Ok, something about this story seems a bit amiss. Gayle Laakmann is complaining about people thinking she is a recruiter, supposedly because she's a woman. Hmm, I'm curious - who is this person? How does she portray herself? Are there any other possible reasons people might view her as someone working in the general HR space? http://www.gayle.com/consulting/ I can't imagine why a consultant who helps with "Technical…

If you read just that, okay fine. But if you're going to the front page of the website, you'd also see PROGRAMMER there. (Way to, by the way, cherry pick examples. Why not use this page? http://www.gayle.com/projects/ Oh, right, because it doesn't prove the straw man you'd built.)

But that wasn't the example referenced. The example referenced about doing a talk on coding topics (data structures, algorithms, code) for an hour and having some ask about my "prior" role as a recruiter.

Re: A hilariously sad tale of gender bias

#74

Ok, something about this story seems a bit amiss. Gayle Laakmann is complaining about people thinking she is a recruiter, supposedly because she's a woman. Hmm, I'm curious - who is this person? How does she portray herself? Are there any other possible reasons people might view her as someone working in the general HR space? http://www.gayle.com/consulting/ I can't imagine why a consultant who helps with "Technical…

No recruiter, out of every recruiter I have ever spoken with from Google down to smaller startups, has ever discussed code with me beyond what languages I know and if I have experience writing tests.

It is absurd to talk with someone about code for an hour and assume they are a recruiter.

Re: A hilariously sad tale of gender bias

#75
post #69
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you say nobody is doubting her ability because she is female? RTFA! Yes, of course you can doubt people's ability regardless of their gender, but it doesn't happen regardless of gender, it happens because of gender. People start out thinking: "Woman. Probably not a good coder. Ah, see? She knows about job interviews! She's a recruiter! Not a programmer at all." Had it been a man, they'd be: "Hey, this program…

[deleted]

I'm not sure I understand your argument. Are you suggesting that because there are more male programmers in total and hence more male programmers that are 'above average', that a randomly selected male candidate is statistically more likely to be 'above average' than a randomly selected female candidate?

If so that would be incorrect.

Re: A hilariously sad tale of gender bias

#76
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

I'm not sure I understand your argument. Are you suggesting that because there are more male programmers in total and hence more male programmers that are 'above average', that a randomly selected male candidate is statistically more likely to be 'above average' than a randomly selected female candidate? If so that would be incorrect.

[deleted]

Re: A hilariously sad tale of gender bias

#77

This probably should be a blog post with deeper research, but I swear it must be a human rite of passage to have the established groups treat some minority or "new" group poorly. For example, it wasn't but 100 years ago in the USA that groups like Irish, Germans, Italians, Chinese, etc. were looked down on as poor immigrants who were taking "real" American jobs. They eventually were accepted only to turn around and p…

Eventually, all the current minorities, including women Women are not a minority; not in the US nor in the vast majority of countries.

They are not a minority of the population, but definitely a minority in the tech workplace.

Re: A hilariously sad tale of gender bias

#78

Ok, something about this story seems a bit amiss. Gayle Laakmann is complaining about people thinking she is a recruiter, supposedly because she's a woman. Hmm, I'm curious - who is this person? How does she portray herself? Are there any other possible reasons people might view her as someone working in the general HR space? http://www.gayle.com/consulting/ I can't imagine why a consultant who helps with "Technical…

Perhaps she was somebody who figured out that writing books and consulting about interviews and recruiting was more lucrative? I'm not about to doubt somebody's credentials because she saw and opportunity and took it.

Re: A hilariously sad tale of gender bias

#79
post #69
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you say nobody is doubting her ability because she is female? RTFA! Yes, of course you can doubt people's ability regardless of their gender, but it doesn't happen regardless of gender, it happens because of gender. People start out thinking: "Woman. Probably not a good coder. Ah, see? She knows about job interviews! She's a recruiter! Not a programmer at all." Had it been a man, they'd be: "Hey, this program…

[deleted]

You have this a bit wrong.

If ability is normally distributed for a given sex (and the mean of the ability of the same), then it is true that there would be more above-average male programmers than female programmers - just as there are more male programmers than female programmers at any skill level. If you are provided a skilled programmer, they are most likely male. And if you are provided any programmer, they are most likely male. However, If you pick a random male programmer and a random female programmer, the woman is just as likely to be a good coder as the man.

This means that if you are talking to an anonymous person online and they are a good coder, you should assume they are male (if you're going to assume anything). This does not work backwards - if you are talking to a female programmer and you do not know their coding ability, it would not be particularly likely that they are a poor coder.

Re: A hilariously sad tale of gender bias

#80
post #79
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

You have this a bit wrong. If ability is normally distributed for a given sex (and the mean of the ability of the same), then it is true that there would be more above-average male programmers than female programmers - just as there are more male programmers than female programmers at any skill level. If you are provided a skilled programmer, they are most likely male. And if you are provided any programmer, they are…

[deleted]
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