Nevertheless, She Coded

And of course, we're not even a month of a self-implosion event at Uber, where we see a lot of corroboration of workplace harassment claims.

If you need to be told "not all men" you can maybe write a chrome extension so that it subs "men" to "men (but of course it should be clear from context: not every single man ever or currently)" and that'll cover you.

http://time.com/money/4285843/gender-pay-gap-excuses-wrong/

“A 2011 study from Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce found that "men with some college but no degree earn about the same as women with a Bachelor’s degree," and that "wo men have to have a Ph.D. to make as much as men with a B.A."

So you can't chalk the wage gap up to education. What about time in the workforce then? Attributing differences in pay to women's perceived inexperience ignores the studies that show the more years a woman spends in the workforce, the bigger the gap gets between her and her equally experienced male colleagues. Women in their late 20s earn around 92% of what their male peers receive, whereas women in their early 50s make just 71% of the average man's wages, according to a report from Claudia Goldin, an economics professor at Harvard University.”

One explanation for this is that it isn't happening. Another is that it isn't happening in my "spaces" (networks/companies/etc.). But another is that it is, but in ways that I don't see. I don't know how much all my coworkers are paid, and if someone is receiving unwanted advances it would likely be happening where I can't see it. There are other explanations too, maybe I'm used to some sexist behaviors and wouldn't notice if they happened right in front of me. A lot of the tech culture humor I'm aware of, and have participated in, revolves around programmers being men. It took some time and some serious reflection before I realized this was the case, and that it was a problem.

So sure, no one in my office runs around "grabbing women by the ...," or joking with me about it, but that doesn't mean sexism isn't happening. And I respect and trust my female peers enough to take them seriously when they tell me it is.

All that said, there's one piece of data I simply can't square with "sexism isn't a serious problem in tech." Every company I've worked for, every conference or meetup I've attended, most of the blogs I follow and books I've read - vastly more men than women. To the point that it's almost absurd. Here's what gets me about that - I love what I do! Tech is a great field to be working in for a ton of reasons! Objective reasons! On top of that so much of tech lends itself naturally to inclusiveness. What the fk is going on that I can work for years on teams of 90% men?! This doesn't prove sexism in tech, but it's evidence that something is up, right? And the accounts I've heard of women being treated poorly in tech give credence sexism as one possible and reasonable explanation.

Heck, I don't even think I'm arguing with you. Your posts sound reasonable, I get the sense you care, and I'm certainly less familiar with European tech culture than American. BUT it is worth your time to dig into the, "if I don't see it isn't happening" thing because that can be a trap; one I've fallen into myself.

I read the post, but your comments still make little sense to me. The only interpretations I can think of paint you in a pretty negative light and that would be clearly unfair on my part.

FWIW, gender equality is a serious issue in all fields (including software development) in this country and I feel it is both important and worthwhile to keep this top-of-mind. International Women's Day and this page are both working toward that goal... This surely is just as relevant to the site as the "Decline in Sexual Frequency Among American Adults" article.[0]

[0]: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10508-017-0953-...

Treatment of women as full-fledged peers is definitely something that needs better attention in our industry.