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The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer

jeanhsu.com

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Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer

#31

Post by Deestan »

alinajaf wrote: post #10

> Less Drama A male developer saying that would _so_ not get away with it :P

When people ask me how it is to work in a male-dominated workplace, I always point out "no drama". I've gotten away with it so far.

To contrast, my wife works in a female-dominated kindergarden. There's so much "did you see the way X Looked at me", "Y ran crying from the meeting", "Z said Good Morning to W, but did you hear the tone of her voice?" going on it's making my head spin.

I also used to work in a logistic firm that was staffed pretty 50/50. Some days, there was enough drama to put a soap opera writer to shame. Though I suspect constant layoffs and competitive promotion jostling did its bit to fuel that.

I'm sorry if this makes me come out as sexist, but to the best of my empirical knowledge, women are more drama-prone than men.

http://www.boctaoe.com/

Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer

#32

Post by Confusion »

sthatipamala wrote: post #23
Confusion wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to assume both you and Jean Hsu wouldn't be serious when they said that. In that case, if you were to say that, the angry horde would consist of women that didn't know you and were taking your words at face value, because guys have been known to actually feel that way. Those women would give Jean Hsu the benefit of the doubt, because there are few women known to have actually ever felt that way. However, wi…

I agree. I'll gladly mince my words to avoid being called a sexist. The issue here is that either Jean is being serious, in which case she's undermining workplace equality, or she's abusing the fact that she can facetiously say such things because she can get away with it. What is she trying to accomplish?

Well, clarifying what you mean to people that don't know you is not really mincing words: a lot of implicit things can remain unsaid with people that do know you, but that doesn't mean it should be possible to leave them unsaid at all.

I don't think she's trying to accomplish anything; she's just being blatantly honest and care-free, without taking into consideration how Joe Random may (reasonably) interpret what she's saying.

Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer

#33

Post by nimrody »

Add to the list another 'benefit': Getting immediate attention from any male dominated forum (case in point: HN).

Having worked with female colleagues (EEs), I have found much more diversity than common behavior. These sort of articles certainly do not reflect my experience (as a male).

Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer

#34

Post by bluesnowmonkey »

tastybites wrote: post #2

They generally remember to shower every so often Oh, come on.

I'd like stereotypes like that not to be true, but at my last two jobs I had coworkers who obviously did not shower regularly. It seems like something about programming gives people the idea that they can let their hygiene go in a way that no other white-collar workplace would tolerate. Or maybe I've just been unlucky.

Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer

#36

Post by cookiecaper »

sthatipamala wrote: post #14

Re: "Being Liked" If I were to say "I like having women at work, especially when they make brownies and are not bitches," I'd have an angry horde at my door. But Jean Hsu thinks it is okay to say it because she is a woman?

I think everyone would like having people at work make brownies, and not bitch, and I think they would like it regardless of the sex of the bakers.

Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer

#37

Post by sp332 »

squasher wrote: post #19
cyen wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An alternative is being encouraged to go into product / management roles (read: out of engineering) because you've got "communication skills."

Yes! I can't tell you how many people have tried to steer me away from development because I speak human AND code, and can actually make eye contact.

What's eye contact for, anyway? I can read body language reasonably well, but I always feel like people are expecting me to do something with my eyes and I can never tell what, exactly, I'm supposed to do with them.

Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer

#38

Post by georgieporgie »

Groxx wrote: post #28
1337p337 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of them do tend to be cleaner. But anyone remember the report a couple of decades back about water usage after the US Navy started letting women on ships? Having ladies around made the guys shower more often. Empirically, I can verify that, since getting married, I do tend to shave more often.

Just to be a contrary example, both my wife and I shave less now that we're married (ie, never). Our skin is much happier, shorter showers, far fewer razors going dull, and no more cactus in bed. She's also discovering she prefers it in other women - as a massage therapist, regardless of how recently they've shaved she'll encounter it all, and it's pretty amazingly irritating stuff.

as a massage therapist, regardless of how recently they've shaved she'll encounter it all

As a guy who enjoys massages and has hairy extremities: no matter how much oil is used, the hair gets pulled. One of the primary reasons cyclists shave their legs is for better massages.

Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer

#39

Post by georgieporgie »

My (sexist?) experience:

The few women I've worked alongside as a software engineer have been fantastic. Easy to get along with, able to focus on work tasks and still have a great lunchtime conversation, with no alpha-nerd pedantic B.S.

The women I've worked for (three) have been universally terrible. Each in slightly different ways, but all had a strange, overcompensating quality to them. I'll just have to say it: bitchiness. Strange, control-freak tendencies and subsequent drama.

I've worked for two great male bosses, two idiots, and one brilliant guy who was an asshole (but at least he could be reasoned with). I would take all but one of the male bosses over any of the female bosses.

My conclusion isn't that women are bad managers, or anything like that. Rather, I believe it shows that people with lousy people skills are distributed across both sexes, and promoting worker bees to management positions is not an ideal plan.

Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer

#40

Post by angus77 »

sp332 wrote: post #37
squasher wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! I can't tell you how many people have tried to steer me away from development because I speak human AND code, and can actually make eye contact.

What's eye contact for, anyway? I can read body language reasonably well, but I always feel like people are expecting me to do something with my eyes and I can never tell what, exactly, I'm supposed to do with them.

Then you're safe! No management role for you!
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