
Ask HN: Physical work creep in IT jobs, the root cause of unconscious bias? - anticristi
 I recently took the Linux Foundation &quot;Inclusive Speaker Training&quot;. In brief, it argues that the IT sector favors men due to unconscious bias. This got me thinking: Is it possible that unconscious bias is due to certain IT jobs benefiting (or having benefited in the past) from physical strength? For better or worse, our species features sexual dimorphism: Women are on average physically less strong than men, although intellectually at least as capable. I found that many IT jobs still benefit from physical strength: When working as a network engineer, it was beneficial to be able to lift a 120kg router (with a co-worker, of course) to install it in the rack. When working in start-ups, we often had to mount our own furniture and physical strength could reduce the number of person-hours required to complete the task. Few decades ago, computer screens were crazy heavy, even for men, and being able to put one on your desk would give you access to more screen estate, better colors and&#x2F;or higher resolutions.
I conjecture that each instance of physical work creep gives men more opportunities. For example, a better screen a decade ago could give male graphics designer a small heads-up. Even if men do not intellectually benefit from physical work creep, it might still reinforce the stereotype: &quot;This male candidate feels more suitable for X&quot;.<p>Fortunately, if my conjecture is true, the solution is &quot;easy&quot;: Fight physical work creep, by making devices, installations, furniture, etc. more physically inclusive.<p>Could physical work creep cause unconscious bias? Have any scholars studied this issue? Are there more &#x2F; better examples of physical work creep in IT jobs?<p>P.S.: I conjecture that this issue is not restricted to IT. Non-fly-by-wire airliners, e.g., B737, require force to command the stick, which be designed to the strength of men. I would be curious to see if the proportion of female pilots on Airbus A320 is larger than on B737.
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ecmascript
I think the more obvious answer is that men and women prefer different things
on a group basis and there is a lot of science to back this up. In countries
that are less free, there are more women in IT than in western countries where
people are free to go after whatever interests them. This holds true even when
loads of money are poured onto different diversity projects.

There is a great Norwegian documentary about this subject, called "Hjernevask
- The gender equality paradox" which translates to "brain washing". You can
watch it here:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E577jhf25t4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E577jhf25t4)

~~~
aosaigh
Buy _why_ do one group prefer some things over others? Is it because that’s
what’s been available to them, that’s what they’ve been told to like etc.? I’m
not going to enjoy Computer Science if I’ve never been exposed in any way to
computers, or seen anyone else in my group in that industry etc.

By the way this is a genuine question. I completely believe that it’s not
controversial to expect there to be differences amongst groups. It’s just that
with issues like gender there seems to be so many different things at play
that it’s hard to pin it down.

~~~
janbernhart
It's not like girls grow up in different houses/schools/families as boys do.
Computers are equally around. You can argue if/how they are stimulated to play
with computers rather then something else, and having role-models definitely
plays a role.

Moreover, it's a discussion if we should strive for equal opportunity or equal
outcome. Some ideologies push for the latter, and (ironically) free will of
those they try to support gets in the way.

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raxxorrax
Did you really take such a course voluntarily? Nobody forced you? Just
checking...

Honestly I think unconscious bias is snake oil in its worst form. The topic
was popular in my country in the early nineties and it really got towards
level I would call child abuse. Like testing the reactions of infants towards
people of different skin colors. If such a reaction was perceived, children
were shown a "corrective movie" which could induce trauma. There isn't much
info on this on the net sadly, I would be quite interested in it because I was
subjected to it. In my opinion it is plain child abuse.

But basically I would recommend not to partake in anything mentioning
unconscious bias. Everyone has bias and that is completely okay, it is part of
your personality. I don't know what the Linux Foundation has on the topic, but
I don't want to have anything to do with them anymore or the people selling
their "training".

I also don't want to make anything inclusive aside from ensuring physical
accessibility for disabled people. Anything else is ideological bullshit in my
opinion and doesn't speak too well on the foundation.

What is your favorite color? If you have one you are probably biased.

Women that see themselves as victims from "invisible barriers" shouldn't be a
role model. Those that just work in IT might be a good start.

edit:

[https://nypost.com/2020/07/16/obscene-federal-diversity-
trai...](https://nypost.com/2020/07/16/obscene-federal-diversity-training-
scam-prospers-even-under-trump/)

If you do it voluntarily, please call me for your next batch of penis
enlargement. This is basic corruption btw.

