An Open Letter to Jessica Livingston About YC's Female Founders Conference

Post by tomp » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 7:37 PM UTC

lambda wrote: post #19

chaostheory wrote: post #5

"I’ve lived my life in a 'man’s world', receiving a degree in mechanical engineering—which contains the lowest percentage of women compared to any other engineering field at just 7.2%—from an already male-dominated university." Going on a tangent, I suspect areas like mechanical engineering and computer science are still "boy's clubs" due to one thing: social prestige. I feel that women are more attracted to high pre…

Well, when I looked around a bit I found this article " rel="nofollow">http://readwrite.com/2014/09/02/women-in-computer-science-wh... which links to this study: " rel="nofollow">http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/09/11/220748057/why-wome... which indicates that rather than being based on prestige, it appears that the disparity can be broken down based on more rewarding but lower paying, vs. more purely mercenary jo…

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 7:39 PM UTC

impendia wrote: post #32

garrisondmr wrote: post #18

I watched the FFC live and what struck me was that it was the same as any other founder conference except that it was a girl on stage instead of a dude. If we want to stop making gender a big deal then we need to stop making gender a big deal. There is no Male Founder Conference right?

> we need to stop making gender a big deal By your own admission, FFC didn't make a big deal out of gender and is therefore doing as you ask. Events like these are appreciated and found helpful by the women who participate in them. Isn't that sufficient grounds to be happy that they are taking place?

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 7:39 PM UTC

impendia wrote: post #32

garrisondmr wrote: post #18

I watched the FFC live and what struck me was that it was the same as any other founder conference except that it was a girl on stage instead of a dude. If we want to stop making gender a big deal then we need to stop making gender a big deal. There is no Male Founder Conference right?

> we need to stop making gender a big deal By your own admission, FFC didn't make a big deal out of gender and is therefore doing as you ask. Events like these are appreciated and found helpful by the women who participate in them. Isn't that sufficient grounds to be happy that they are taking place?

Post by jsprogrammer » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 7:39 PM UTC

impendia wrote: post #32

garrisondmr wrote: post #18

I watched the FFC live and what struck me was that it was the same as any other founder conference except that it was a girl on stage instead of a dude. If we want to stop making gender a big deal then we need to stop making gender a big deal. There is no Male Founder Conference right?

> we need to stop making gender a big deal By your own admission, FFC didn't make a big deal out of gender and is therefore doing as you ask. Events like these are appreciated and found helpful by the women who participate in them. Isn't that sufficient grounds to be happy that they are taking place?

Post by ForHackernews » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 7:41 PM UTC

wongarsu wrote: post #39

nailer wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think The Big Bang Theory is pretty awful too, but I think how you describe what you do makes a difference: - "I'm a programmer" (people think about typing) - "I make apps" (people think about the amazing things you create...by typing)

That works well for customer-facing software, but I'm not so sure about the general case. "I make a quality control system for a large factory" (people think about all sorts of boring things) "I make payroll software" (people feign interest for a moment, then change the topic)