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Satya Nadella Email to Employees: RE: Grace Hopper Conference

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Re: Satya Nadella Email to Employees: RE: Grace Hopper Conference

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, the distance from the east to the west of India is some 1200 miles, and north to south is around 2000 miles. The idea that you could describe the entire country in such simple cultural generalizations is as wrong as generalizing about people from LA and Kansas. Just the way you're talking about India is, while flattering, very uninformed. The US is also home to lovely and kind people, as well as people capable…

I have visited India multiple times, my in-laws are Indian, it's not a country I'm completely ignorant of and I'm saying nothing out of ignorance, but direct experience of the unequal status of women in Indian society compared to Western society. You can make generalisations when doing a comparison with cultures, but not when prejudging individuals. For example the US is wealthier than Algeria. That is a generalisati…

> For example the US is wealthier than Algeria. That is a generalisation ...

No, that's a statement of fact for some definition of wealth.

> ... but doesn't reflect the individual status of people within each country. I.e. some Algerians will be wealthier than some Americans.

This is simply a recognition that your fact applies to the whole and does not hold for every possible pairwise comparison.

My issue is that you cannot generalize about any cultural phenomenon in India. You can state some facts you've seen, but India is,

* a country dominated by three distinct religions,

* in some places resembles New York or Paris

* while in others it the remotest parts of Afghanistan

* and still in other parts more closely resembles Tibet

So to say that you could make one statement about the status of Indian women is misguided.

I'm glad you enjoy (presumably?) your Indian family and your trips there, but your experience is limited, and still that of a foreigner. A person having lived their whole life in India could hardly be expected to give a coherent assessment of the situation, much less so with you. The question itself is rooted in a level of imprecision which makes it useless when applied to a country as diverse as India.

Re: Satya Nadella Email to Employees: RE: Grace Hopper Conference

#92
I was there and it was interesting to see the crowd react to his comment. The dynamic shifted shortly after he made the comment, then the crowd cheered when he was presented with the correct response. I just think the backlash is crazy and there are certainly a group of people that are focused on making noise and not progress

Re: Satya Nadella Email to Employees: RE: Grace Hopper Conference

#93
If he has never asked for a raise in all his career, such a thought process would not be out of place. Granted saying this in a women specific forum will not go well, but his later tweet, that we need to close the gap is precisely what needs to be done. Regarding employees in general having to ask for raises, i cannot say much, as in my job career of over 30 years, never had to ask for one. I thought I was fairly compensated - maybe i was too happy in my job :-( but life has not been bad.

Re: Satya Nadella Email to Employees: RE: Grace Hopper Conference

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, it's hard to generalize but for the modern woman, I think it's no worse than what you'd find in the western world. Until last year, the most powerful politician in India was an Italian-Indian woman (again this might not mean anything but it shows that it's not ingrained into people). Also, given the population, you might hear more cases of inequality. But please don't let that affect your general view of India…

Have you been to India? The caste system predates the Buddha (500BC) btw. and is routed in Hindu culture. The British actually also exploited the difference between Muslims and Hindus, but again didn't create the difference. Yes the Raj used divide and conquer, but they used differences that had existed for thousands of years and still do.

And https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_politics_in_India
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