Etsy Hacker Grants: Supporting Women in Technology
1–10 of 46 posts
Re: Etsy Hacker Grants: Supporting Women in Technology
#2I think it's great to look into why your organization doesn't have more women represented across its divisions. I even think outreach in the form of awareness about this 'problem' is great. I dislike the implicit message being sent by offering money specifically to women to go into engineering/computer science. At best it says, we know you know that engineering is not a field your interested in because your a woman which is why we're focusing on the fact that you're a woman in our recruiting pitch, and so we're offering you a 'bonus' of $Xk. I was aghast when the NYT article ( dave-to-girl ratio ) linked mentioned that "Most women think, 'I'm going to be in a cubicle at Microsoft typing next to some guys who smell funny." if they go into computer science. Because clearly all women make decisions on whether to enter a field based on some absurdly gross overgeneralization of that field. And even if every engineer in the world smelled like a sewer rat, to list that as the first/most important/first mentioned reason women don't want to become engineers is disgusting in the first order.
Here's an idea. Why don't we do real research into what cultural factors influence men and women into going into different fields, and then decide to act on those cultural factors. Rather than say, I don't know, do what we do now, which is tantamount to, here lets fix this symptom of a much wider societal problem, and trample on the 'self-worth' and 'competency' of the very minority we're trying to 'save' in the process.
/rant.
Re: Etsy Hacker Grants: Supporting Women in Technology
#3If someone gives less money to women, -because they are women- it's sexism.
How giving money to women -because they are women- isn't sexism?
A more honest approach would be to hire the most qualified person, regardless of your current male/female ratio.
Re: Etsy Hacker Grants: Supporting Women in Technology
#4I think it's great to look into why your organization doesn't have more women represented across its divisions. I even think outreach in the form of awareness about this 'problem' is great. I dislike the implicit message being sent by offering money specifically to women to go into engineering/computer science. At best it says, we know you know that engineering is not a field your interested in because your a woman w…
Consider the possibility that one of the things that discourages women from entering the field is the lack of women in the field.
Re: Etsy Hacker Grants: Supporting Women in Technology
#5If someone gives less money to women, -because they are women- it's sexism. How giving money to women -because they are women- isn't sexism? A more honest approach would be to hire the most qualified person, regardless of your current male/female ratio.
It's compensative sexism.
Re: Etsy Hacker Grants: Supporting Women in Technology
#6If someone gives less money to women, -because they are women- it's sexism. How giving money to women -because they are women- isn't sexism? A more honest approach would be to hire the most qualified person, regardless of your current male/female ratio.
While I strongly believe Etsy can spend their money any way they want...
I'm curious that if by always treating female hackers as a special group, that it will create a further divide in the community, analogous to hate crimes:
> In their book Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics, James B. Jacobs and Kimberly Potter criticize hate crime legislation for exacerbating conflicts between groups. They assert that by defining crimes as being committed by one group against another, rather than as being committed by individuals against their society, the labeling of crimes as “hate crimes” causes groups to feel persecuted by one another, and that this impression of persecution can incite a backlash and thus lead to an actual increase in crime.
Re: Etsy Hacker Grants: Supporting Women in Technology
#7I think it's great to look into why your organization doesn't have more women represented across its divisions. I even think outreach in the form of awareness about this 'problem' is great. I dislike the implicit message being sent by offering money specifically to women to go into engineering/computer science. At best it says, we know you know that engineering is not a field your interested in because your a woman w…
Consider the possibility that one of the things that discourages women from entering the field is the lack of women in the field.
Consider the possibility that one of the things that encourages women to enter the field is the lack of women in the field.
Re: Etsy Hacker Grants: Supporting Women in Technology
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Consider the possibility that one of the things that discourages women from entering the field is the lack of women in the field.
Consider the possibility that one of the things that encourages women to enter the field is the lack of women in the field.
Have you talked to many women about this?
Re: Etsy Hacker Grants: Supporting Women in Technology
#9Re: Etsy Hacker Grants: Supporting Women in Technology
#10I think it's great to look into why your organization doesn't have more women represented across its divisions. I even think outreach in the form of awareness about this 'problem' is great. I dislike the implicit message being sent by offering money specifically to women to go into engineering/computer science. At best it says, we know you know that engineering is not a field your interested in because your a woman w…
Because clearly all women make decisions on whether to enter a field based on some absurdly gross overgeneralization of that field.
There is at least some research suggesting this is the case.
Archived article: http://web.archive.org/web/20100106021904/http://scicom.ucsc...
HN Discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=969646