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Reflections on Being a Female Founder

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Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#61

Post by Scarblac »

globular-toast wrote: post #54
_pzdn wrote: post #23

This was an interesting read. I found it well written and kind of sad, if optimistic and hopeful. Personally, I would love to see a lot more female developers. I am betting there is no significant difference in inherent potential talent between the two genders, so why are almost all coders I've worked with male?

> Personally, I would love to see a lot more female developers. See there you betray a rather sinister idea. If you had said that you want to see any unfair barriers to entry removed, or that you want to ensure equal exposure and opportunity across all people and all fields then I could support it. But instead you made your desires quite clear: you just want female developers. That means the gender, physical appearan…

Aren't workplaces with a more or less even mix just more pleasant places to work? People seem to act more normal than when it's (almost) only men or (almost) only women.

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#62

Post by andrewg »

globular-toast wrote: post #54
_pzdn wrote: post #23

This was an interesting read. I found it well written and kind of sad, if optimistic and hopeful. Personally, I would love to see a lot more female developers. I am betting there is no significant difference in inherent potential talent between the two genders, so why are almost all coders I've worked with male?

> Personally, I would love to see a lot more female developers. See there you betray a rather sinister idea. If you had said that you want to see any unfair barriers to entry removed, or that you want to ensure equal exposure and opportunity across all people and all fields then I could support it. But instead you made your desires quite clear: you just want female developers. That means the gender, physical appearan…

Oh brother. People aren't work-producing robots, developers included. Different types of people bring different types of experiences, opinions, and viewpoints. So you'll make better products if you have a more diverse group of people making them. On a personal level, wouldn't you like to work with a more diverse group of people as well?

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#63

Post by ddevault »

tialaramex wrote: post #51
_pzdn wrote: post #23

This was an interesting read. I found it well written and kind of sad, if optimistic and hopeful. Personally, I would love to see a lot more female developers. I am betting there is no significant difference in inherent potential talent between the two genders, so why are almost all coders I've worked with male?

One thing that bugs me: Women I know who wrote software kept finding new roles where they'd be in management instead and then they moan that they liked writing code and miss it. Maybe that tells us that sexism in software development is prevalent and they wanted out, which is no fault of theirs, and maybe they just wanted more money - but it definitely sucks overall. I find blind technical interviewing easy because I…

>Women I know who wrote software kept finding new roles where they'd be in management instead and then they moan that they liked writing code and miss it.

I hear this a lot from men, too. We have a general problem in the industry of being bad at making senior engineering a rewarding career track.

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#64

Post by silvat »

klyrs wrote: post #47
mtgp1000 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if I want to push myself in pursuit of my dreams, I need to sandbag because working hard sets bad precedent for others? Edit: why is this flagged? Is it not a valid point? If you claim that there is a problem in tech because men are stoic and work long hours even during times of personal hardship, you're effectively shaming these men for working too hard. This is something that needs to be discussed before you sta…

Treat it as a marathon, not a sprint. Making time for your mental health is not a cultural priority, and that results in a high rate of burnout across the industry. I think I'd have made it a lot further in my career, and faster, if I'd avoided that in my 20s.

I think pursuing an idea or project with wreckless abandon can be a beautiful thing. The risk of getting injured in the attempt to push limits is the cost of doing business.

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#65

Post by Alex3917 »

satyrnein wrote: post #38

I wish there were a clear bad guy here, but most of the hardship seems to have been caused by more diffuse social pressures. What could we have done as an industry to improve the author's experience? Maybe just having more female founders around in general (by removing any barriers) would make some of these circumstances more commonplace.

> I wish there were a clear bad guy here, but most of the hardship seems to have been caused by more diffuse social pressures.

Unchecked tech monopolies artificially driving up the cost of capital for startups seems like a large contributing factor. For sure VCs shouldn’t be engaging in sexist or predatory behavior, but that’s not really the root issue, just one of the more salient and proximate manifestations of larger industry-specific and broader societal issues.

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#66

Post by vmception »

> I think I was scared of what others might think of me as a new mother and CEO, maybe because of my own insecurities, maybe because of the societal norms ingrained in me.

I see this so much from corporate career ladder focused women.

People literally feeling guilty for wanting some aspect of motherhood, or going through some aspect of motherhood.

(and then ironically apologizing about that, despite the core of their reconditioning being not to apologize unnecessarily all the time)

I am not sure how much this is talked about, as its always been a personal conversation when I hear it.

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#67

Post by vmception »

_pzdn wrote: post #23

This was an interesting read. I found it well written and kind of sad, if optimistic and hopeful. Personally, I would love to see a lot more female developers. I am betting there is no significant difference in inherent potential talent between the two genders, so why are almost all coders I've worked with male?

I see a lot of different personalities and demographics including women coming out of coding academies.

But everyone in the bay area flirts with "getting into tech".

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#68

Post by bt4u2 »

eyerony wrote: post #58
tialaramex wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that bugs me: Women I know who wrote software kept finding new roles where they'd be in management instead and then they moan that they liked writing code and miss it. Maybe that tells us that sexism in software development is prevalent and they wanted out, which is no fault of theirs, and maybe they just wanted more money - but it definitely sucks overall. I find blind technical interviewing easy because I…

> Women I know who wrote software kept finding new roles where they'd be in management instead and then they moan that they liked writing code and miss it. Maybe that tells us that sexism in software development is prevalent and they wanted out, which is no fault of theirs, and maybe they just wanted more money - but it definitely sucks overall. I secretly (well not in this moment but ordinarily secret) consider wome…

Then you secretly are stupid and sexist. The average IQ is one of the few places where men and women are actually equal, the data is very clear on this

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#69

Post by notkaiho »

silvat wrote: post #64
klyrs wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Treat it as a marathon, not a sprint. Making time for your mental health is not a cultural priority, and that results in a high rate of burnout across the industry. I think I'd have made it a lot further in my career, and faster, if I'd avoided that in my 20s.

I think pursuing an idea or project with wreckless abandon can be a beautiful thing. The risk of getting injured in the attempt to push limits is the cost of doing business.

Can be; more often it's destructive, and to what end?
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