I'm not a Woman in Tech

>It has always disturbed me when a push for female developers is mentioned;

My initial reaction to hearing news like this is that more qualified candidates are going to be passed over in favor of more diverse candidates. This in turn can quickly turn into viewing minority candidates as diversity hires.

There is a lot of sexism, racism, and classism in our society. We need to hit it at the root where it occurs and realize that any other approach to correct it can end up being more costly. For example, many attempts to correct racism don't account for classism. This ends up creating resentment in class minorities who aren't racial minorities, which ends up perpetuating racism and creating groups who are opposed to the notion of social justice in general.

> Studies are showing that more diverse teams have higher collective intelligence...

Yet the evidence provided for this claim regards preliminary findings of a singular study conducted six years ago.

> Is it a problem that of computer science degrees earned, only 28% are earned by women?

Again, the evidence provided for this claim is an article about an article about an infographic stating, "Among all students holding B.S. degrees in Computer Science...28% ARE WOMEN...though we recognize that this has decreased over the last 25 years, we are encouraged by the increases that are occurring." However, the source for these figures seems to emanate from this table:

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_349.asp

Which illustrates, "Degrees in computer and information sciences conferred by degree-granting institutions, by level of degree and sex of student: 1970-71 through 2010-11." And shows that between 2010 and 2011 only 17% of bachelors degrees went to women while 28% of masters degrees went to women. So that contradicts the figure reported in the graphic as it seems they used the wrong degree type. Nevertheless, I was at least able to eventually source this figure even though it holds little bearing on discrimination.

> Or that the rate of women in computing has been steadily in decline since 1991?

I cannot even source this statistic and no evidence is provided. Although, it would seem to be contradictory given what's listed in the above report.

> Or that twice as many women quit the high tech industry as men?

Again, no evidence is provided for this conclusion. However, I do feel that I've previously read an article to this effect. Although, it was quite faulty in its conclusions and I believe I left a comment to that effect. So I cannot even speak to the veracity of this claim without doing a bunch more research.

> Assuming we can agree there is a problem...

Given what's above, we cannot.

> I’d say it’s something like this: the problem is, that the tech industry isn’t able to attract and retain enough women.

Well I'd say something like this: attempting to force equality over a volunteer workforce is unnecessary and meaningless. If women want to become a larger portion of the tech industry, they are free to get educated and work their way up just like everyone else. And if they encounter actual discrimination or harassment along the way, there are laws already in effect which can be readily enforced.

> It would be better to read the resume without the gender clues. (Names removed, sorority and fraternity info removed, women organization removed etc) But without that I think we make it explicit just so we have a shot at examining the things we don't make explicit.

> That is the theory, anyway.

Recent studies[1] contradict your theory.

1. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-30/bilnd-recruitment-tria...

I recently watched an answer on this by Steven Pinker as to why this "re-segregation" is happening. He basically says that legitimate movements don't stop as soon as they've reached their goal and at that point, they start to become regressive. Interestingly he provides an example that hasn't to do with any ism: child protection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFnP5UUXuTk

That's definitely not always true and probably not in the majority case either. Please don't escalate a discussion like this straight into political battle—we want interesting, thoughtful conversation here and the two aren't compatible.

We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14702833 and marked it off-topic.