Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech?

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 359 posts

Re: Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech?

#91

Post by eof »

laughingman2 wrote: post #45
raducu wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any data on this? I'd be willing to bet women are nowhere near as interested in a pure science career in Russia as they are in IT. I think it has to do with psycho-evolutionary factors -- men have much more incentives to take risks, women much more so to play it safe.

Yeah right, and how did you arrive at your reasoning, any list of scientific studies? This is good old sexist/racist talk "X is inferior in math because genes"

This is not just humans, virtually every species has obvious gender roles and proclivities. Where humans differ, is our faculty for reason and (to some degree) overcoming our intuition.

In my opinion, it's obvious that women being under represented in STEM is caused significantly by both evolutionary /and/ cultural factors.

Re: Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech?

#93

Post by raducu »

laughingman2 wrote: post #45
raducu wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any data on this? I'd be willing to bet women are nowhere near as interested in a pure science career in Russia as they are in IT. I think it has to do with psycho-evolutionary factors -- men have much more incentives to take risks, women much more so to play it safe.

Yeah right, and how did you arrive at your reasoning, any list of scientific studies? This is good old sexist/racist talk "X is inferior in math because genes"

That is not what I was saying, far from it.

My evidence is anecdotal, but think about it -- Russia recently decriminalized domestic violence, not exactly the hallmark of gender equality, that's surely not the reason why more females are interested in IT in Russia.

I was not suggesting that females are inferior to men, just that males and females will make vastly different life choices because of psycho-evolution.

It's a scientific fact that while male and female median IQ is the same, men have much more variability (more men at the extremes).

Just think about your reproductive strategy(not necessarily in the modern monogamous society)-- you have bilions upon billions of sperm replenished every day while females produce one egg per month. A smarter/fitter man can produce much more offsprings than a smarter/fitter female. That has got to produce some profound differences in the way men and women behave.

Re: Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech?

#95

Post by beaconstudios »

laughingman2 wrote: post #45
raducu wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any data on this? I'd be willing to bet women are nowhere near as interested in a pure science career in Russia as they are in IT. I think it has to do with psycho-evolutionary factors -- men have much more incentives to take risks, women much more so to play it safe.

Yeah right, and how did you arrive at your reasoning, any list of scientific studies? This is good old sexist/racist talk "X is inferior in math because genes"

I don't see the parent comment saying anything about either race, or inferiority. Just proclivity to want to do something. Maybe chill out a bit on the accusatory kneejerk reaction, this is meant to be a forum for civil discussion.

Re: Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech?

#96

Post by macspoofing »

belorn wrote: post #61
macspoofing wrote: post #4

I've seen it argued that, paradoxically, the richer and more egalitarian a society is, the more the differences are magnified in the kinds choices individuals of both genders make. So Russia being a poorer nation with less paths to success would lead more women to make career choices based around economics, while in Sweden, a richer welfare state, economic factors may be a lower driver.

Large part of the paradox can likely be explained by the small preferences thats derived from gender identity, and the correlation to the number of opportunities available to the individual. For example, if a person choose from two similar professions with similar pay but where one is dominated by ones own gender and the other isn't, then I predict that a above 50% will chose the one which employ a majority of ones o…

I think that's reasonable. If there is an equality of opportunity, then choices will magnify existing differences. If you have equal access to A or B, but there is some minor property of A that makes it a little more attractive to a certain demographic, over a large population sample, you should see large scale differences.

Given that populations of humans will naturally self-organize themselves into groups (whether based on race, culture, music choices, geographic birth, language, etc), the expected outcome is almost never going to be perfect representation. I don't think black people are genetically predisposed for basketball, just like latinos are not genetically predisposed for baseball, and yet the respective demographics are over-represented in NBA and MLB respectively.

Re: Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech?

#97

Post by stagbeetle »

tptacek wrote: post #62
ohstopitu wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so would you say those fields that have >50% women would need to work on their gender diversity to include more men?

Since molecular biology has something like a 54/46 distribution and tech has something like a 19/81 distribution I'd probably tell anyone who told me I should focus on the injustices of molecular biology to shove it up their ass.

What about registered nurses? It's a 91/9 spit.

Re: Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech?

#98

Post by bkkssnn »

madengr wrote: post #9

Russia has a very low birth rate for native Russians. Here in the US, having kids and working in engineering is difficult. My wife took 5 years off and it has definitely affected her pay and advancement. Low pay and little vacation maybe have something to do with it too. Both the wife and I are engineers. Our daughter shows no interest in tech. She does like to mix stuff, so maybe Chem E. Though I'm not going to prod…

Why did your wife take 5 years off "because kids"?

Re: Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech?

#99

Post by 77pt77 »

bkkssnn wrote: post #82
77pt77 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so would you say those fields that have >50% Notice what was written. It was not >50%. It was better than 50%

What is better than 50 % ?

The original comment was:

> and some STEM fields, like molecular biology, have better than 50% representation of women.

not ">50%"

not "more than 50%"

not "higher than 50%"

but "better than 50%"

Of all the variations, only the last one has a moral value attached to it.

Re: Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech?

#100

Post by intoverflow2 »

beaconstudios wrote: post #8

my guess: a cultural and social value placed on STEM subjects. My personal theory is that young women in the West are less likely to get into tech because they are seen as stuffy, the domain of greybeards and model train enthusiasts. Don't forget that people generally pick up their core interest in subjects at a young age where social value and coolness are some of the most important personal objectives (early teen y…

> less keen to get into tech because they are seen as stuffy, the domain of greybeards and model train enthusiasts

I find this kind of justification a pretty sexist view against women that they'd pick their entire career path on such frivolous details.

Post reply on HN