They generally remember to shower every so often Oh, come on.
Also, even if they shower less often, they still don't stink as badly. Women start sweating at a higher temperature than men, so tend to sweat considerably less.
The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer
61–70 of 116 posts
Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer
#62Sorry, I can't hear about gender in engineering jobs anymore. The likelihood that you will see a blog post about the "benefits of being a male software engineer" is exactly the same as the likelihood to see a blog post about the "benefits of being a male social worker". We do not need to artificially try to bring in more engineers of a certain gender just because the numbers don't make sense. And we do not need more…
And this is precisely why we need still more posts. You know why we don't need a "benefits of being a male software engineer" post? Because every day is a "benefits of being a male software engineer" day for male software engineers. You should probably have a read of http://amptoons.com/blog/the-male-privilege-checklist/ . As a rule when it comes to this sort of material, if it makes you feel uncomfortable and defens…
I admit, I haven't read the entire checklist. When the first item on it is blatantly wrong, I kind of got turned off.
Go read about the advantages women have in hiring in the sciences: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12062&page=R1
Anecdotally, women are also given advantages in big corporate IT, but I'm not aware of any studies. Corporations are generally loath to give away data on stuff like this, who knows what lawsuits it might bring.
I only skimmed the rest, but I found 14) particularly amusing. The politicians who stole my lunch [1], my freedom and my money all have a penis (just like me). This is a privilege how?
[1] In Jersey City, where I live and work, Steven Fulops chased away the food trucks to protect subway.
Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
And this is precisely why we need still more posts. You know why we don't need a "benefits of being a male software engineer" post? Because every day is a "benefits of being a male software engineer" day for male software engineers. You should probably have a read of http://amptoons.com/blog/the-male-privilege-checklist/ . As a rule when it comes to this sort of material, if it makes you feel uncomfortable and defens…
Oh, no, please not Derailing For Dummies. It'll certainly reduce the number of replies you get, but not in a good way...
As a sign of good faith in the community here, I've removed the link for now :)
Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer
#64I actually wrote a post with similar sentiments a while back - "Being a Girl in CS Doesn't Suck": http://blog.pamelafox.org/2009/10/being-girl-in-cs-doesnt-su... As for the casual attire, I think it goes both ways. I'm totally into casual most of the times (to the point of wearing my head-to-toe footed pajamas to work), but then the days when I want to dress up or wear a mini-skirt or whatever, I feel like I'm standi…
Sometimes the men want to dress up too. If I wore a tie every day I'm sure I'd hate the bloody thing, but it is nice to occasionally get the boost one gets from dressing up. But a tie at work is definitely taboo, much more than a mini-skirt, since it sends really strong signals.
The only time I've worn a tie at work is when I've had a funeral in the afternoon, and when I drove straight to work after a party in Montreal. A suit with that slept-in look sends signals, but it doesn't imply to your co-workers that you have political ambitions.
Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know. Engineers in general may be more impressed with skill than non-engineers, but as a woman in a technical field, I do feel constant pressure to not merely meet, but exceed, the abilities of my male peers in order to receive the same level of respect. I've felt it all my life, even as far back as middle and high school, competing in math competitions and our school's academic team, and being in the honors…
I think it's likely that your male peers, those who are interested in excellence, are also feeling that same pressure. I'm not suggesting that everything is equal, because it patently isn't, but the constant pressure to exceed the abilities of your peers is common, and I believe is motivating and even healthy. Someone's got to be the best at foo; if foo is important, why should you be the best at it and let others be…
They probably do, but I even recognize the bias in myself. Even having experienced the wrong end of it, I often recognize myself subconsciously defaulting to less respect to another woman in technical matters.
Down in her comment http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2274993 pamelafox linked a blog post she had written about it being good to be a girl in CS, but that post references a previous one she'd written in which she talks about her experience in Model UN in school, where she found herself doing the same thing. Automatically requiring other girls to 'prove' themselves more than the boys before she had respect for them as a speaker. (That post is here: http://blog.pamelafox.org/2009/10/should-i-defend-my-cred-ye...)
I try to be conscious of it, but again, I know what it's like to be on the receiving end. If this is a bias even other women aware of the problem have and have to consciously fight in themselves, how many others (men and women) don't even get as far as recognizing it?
Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer
#66My (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: b…
I've had similar experiences. I think it's possible that the deck is stacked enough against women getting into positions of power that in general the women who get promoted past a certain level are the ones who overcompensate and act more like the stereotypical "ruthless businessman". Then again, that's kind of true for guys too (although to a lesser extent).
Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
And this is precisely why we need still more posts. You know why we don't need a "benefits of being a male software engineer" post? Because every day is a "benefits of being a male software engineer" day for male software engineers. You should probably have a read of http://amptoons.com/blog/the-male-privilege-checklist/ . As a rule when it comes to this sort of material, if it makes you feel uncomfortable and defens…
I admit, I haven't read the entire checklist. When the first item on it is blatantly wrong, I kind of got turned off. Go read about the advantages women have in hiring in the sciences: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12062&page=R1 Anecdotally, women are also given advantages in big corporate IT, but I'm not aware of any studies. Corporations are generally loath to give away data on stuff like this, who know…
The list is a generalisation across all fields, so discounting it based on how something might not be true in your field is a bit short-sighted. #1 is true still for many fields.
Of course, the link you provided wasn't for the general tech sector - it was specific to universities, which have other aspects in play. Even within the general tech sector, there are plenty of reports of questionable hiring practices. I've found to be not uncommon for my gender (female) to be an issue during interviews, and we've seen posts here in the past about this subject. Further, women are often moved rapidly into management roles, and their technical abilities treated as suspect.
And yes, I'm speaking as something big corporate IT, and it's no better. Just looking across at our large (40+) server support teams, you can count the number of women on one hand. The application support teams here are slightly better, but only just. We're a typical shared services company in the UK, and our competitors are all very similar.
As for 14, you've found a truth about privilege lists - they might not always be things you like.
Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you feel the same way about the fact that only ~20% of social workers are men?
Or worse, 90%+ of elementary school teachers are woman.
When I was an education major, to the extent that people commented on my gender, the comments were all positive—as a teacher I would be providing kids with a “male role model”, etc.
(Of course, one of the reasons that I didn’t go on to a career in teaching is that the pay sucked. I believe that one of the reasons teachers’ pay sucks is that it’s a traditionally female occupation, and schools can recruit women who do not depend on their teaching salary for the majority of the family income.)
Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer
#69She doesn't mention it, but another great thing about being an engineer is that engineers are quite egalitarian and the evaluation criteria is often very objective (speed of the code, complexity of the algorithm, etc.). As a result, women just have to be good at what they do, and there's hardly any discrimination. In other fields, often, for a woman to just be good is not enough; there is overt (or covert) discrimina…
I don't know. Engineers in general may be more impressed with skill than non-engineers, but as a woman in a technical field, I do feel constant pressure to not merely meet, but exceed, the abilities of my male peers in order to receive the same level of respect. I've felt it all my life, even as far back as middle and high school, competing in math competitions and our school's academic team, and being in the honors…
Would Leah Culver's "creative" rounding method have been nearly a big deal if she'd been male?
Definitely not. If she were male (or an unattractive female), we'd never have heard of her to begin with. She would have been just another anonymous low level coder working for Kevin Rose.
"He's the Michael Moore of software." That's what the community says when a man with visibility writes bad code:
Re: The Benefits of Being a Female Software Engineer
#70She doesn't mention it, but another great thing about being an engineer is that engineers are quite egalitarian and the evaluation criteria is often very objective (speed of the code, complexity of the algorithm, etc.). As a result, women just have to be good at what they do, and there's hardly any discrimination. In other fields, often, for a woman to just be good is not enough; there is overt (or covert) discrimina…
I don't know. Engineers in general may be more impressed with skill than non-engineers, but as a woman in a technical field, I do feel constant pressure to not merely meet, but exceed, the abilities of my male peers in order to receive the same level of respect. I've felt it all my life, even as far back as middle and high school, competing in math competitions and our school's academic team, and being in the honors…
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