

Why It's Hard for Women to "Lean In" in Tech - martindale
http://poweredbypardees.com/hard-women-lean-tech/

======
skwirl
Only 20% of AP CS test takers are female, and in three states (Mississippi,
Montana, and Wyoming) not a single female sat for the test. Female CS
graduation numbers have been falling for decades, since long before
"brogrammers" and hackathons and frequent large non-academic conferences were
a thing (at least to today's extent).

While I'm glad attention is being given to the terrible behavior of a small
number of men in tech who have no social skills to speak of, if you really
want to talk about the ratio problem, you have to talk about how to get girls
into tech when they are children.

~~~
pardees
Hey, I'm the author. Thank you for reading my blog post. I agree with you that
getting girls interested in technology when they are younger will help with
the ratio problem; however, we do need to give attention to this small number
of men in technology because they are the ones who make this industry so
hostile for women. If we do not address this problem, then the efforts in
getting girls into tech when they are children will be undermined by this
aforementioned environment and those girls will leave the industry.

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mynewwork
This is the type of pointless click-bait, flamewar-starting article I used to
flag, but I appear to have lost my ability to flag articles. Has the karma
threshold changed or was my account specifically stopped from flagging by a
mod?

~~~
dang
This is off-topic as an HN comment. You're welcome to send such questions to
hn@ycombinator.com, as the guidelines ask.

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parennoob
In a piece that laments how women are not safe at tech conferences,

"He then proceeded to offend me in my own language. I was _so horrified I
slapped him_ , which literally made everyone else in the room stop talking and
stare at me."

I have no idea why this author thinks that bro culture somehow justifies her
physically assaulting someone at a tech conference. Then lamenting about, "I
know there must be other women struggle in these situations [sic]" makes it
even worse.

[edit: I agree with the other commenter, this is an ill-written, lopsided, and
clickbait-y article, won't be a loss if someone flags it off the front page.]

~~~
jasallen
I'm male, but if you keep following me around some place after I've told you
to stop, to the point of _six times_ , and then verbally berate me in any
language, I promise, you are going to be physically assaulted.

~~~
parennoob
Instead of informing security or the conference organizers? Are you sure that
beating him up is the optimal course of action? Perhaps the guy has Aspergers,
or a behavioural disorder. It's funny how inclusivity is suddenly being thrown
out the window here.

It is never prudent to assume malicious intent on someone's part and
physically assault them -- and then follow up with a piece about how this
means that you are somehow the sufferer.

------
Jugurtha
Point 1:

Yeah, someone is an asshole to you at a conference.. Never attend another
conference and leave completely the field you're in.

A teacher has been an asshole to me once, I dropped out of school. Do you
realize how childish this is?

A manager has been an asshole to me, not only did I leave the company, but I
changed the field I work in. Just because of that manager.

Point 2:

Most VCs are men. Most company founders are men. VC's don't get businesses
targeted towards women.. So why aren't there women VC's who would get
businesses targeted towards women?

If Point 1 criticized Bro Culture in the Hackdom, I don't think there's a bro
culture in VC's, and I certainly think there _are_ women with money. Why don't
they fund companies, and companies ran by women?

Paul Graham wrote something about founders with thick accents. Some people
might find it racist, but it's just the way it is. We can either cry about it,
and whine about how the industry should be more caring and catering to people
with thick accents, or they can learn to speak English!

(PS: I'm not a native English speaker, so don't tell me I'm a xenophobic
douchebag or a racist. Doesn't keep me from being fluent in 5 languages I use
on a daily basis, though).

3\. Safety..

Alcohol + late night + gender imbalanced room = sounds like clubs in ghettos I
don't go to.. Though I won't go to the club and ask the owner to change his
club: I just won't go there, and choose a better club.

In other words: If you don't like a place, just don't go.

And Pardees, you are not the only one getting hit on by men. I'm a man, and I
do get hit on by men. Some even propose to pay me. I do get hit on by women,
too. And some proposed to pay me, too. I'm not shocked by either. When there's
someone insisting, I just avoid them. I don't view them as
predators(regardless of gender), I view them as people trying to get laid,
which is okay by me.

Point 3:

Yes, and double yes ! That's the attitude. Women need to "woman up!".

The practice of demanding equality and yet, demanding a double standard can't
continue.

I'm sure there are women who are well off, why don't more of those start a VC
company?

Do I need to bring back the History of Silicon Valley and how it all started?
I come from Electronics Engineering, so people on the Software side might have
a more recent referencial for started than Fairchild and all: They didn't like
it, they left, asked for funding, started their own.

Get inspired, people, get inspired ! Don't whine. Fight and make shit happen !

~~~
jmj42
> We can either cry about it, and whine about how the industry should be more
> caring and catering to people with thick accents, or they can learn to speak
> English!

Or, we can work to change the culture that views an accent as detrimental. We
do that by talking about it. You (incorrectly) call it whining, I call it
keeping awareness up.

Alcohol + late night + gender imbalanced room = you average hack night. That
this also resembles your ghetto club is precisely the problem.

~~~
pardees
Thank you for your comment!

------
higherpurpose
> Just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean there aren’t strong women on the
> front lines!

Why do the women in tech have to be "strong women"? As long as you need
"strong women" in tech, I think that implies the environment is still hostile
to them, and only the fittest survive.

~~~
lotsofcows
Because, currently, women are in the minority.

We're well aware the environment is hostile, that's why these articles are
prevalent.

Fortunately, people keep raising awareness. Over time, it will require less
and less strength to survive as a woman in our male dominated arena.
Eventually the average woman will be happy working in a tech startup and we
can all be happy that the world has grown up a little.

~~~
ChikkaChiChi
More needs to be done to raise awareness of assholes that create a hostile
environment, not to separate us into a classification based on genitalia.

We're all humans and those of us who aren't complete shitheels know how to
work together and even encourage people that are somehow different.

If your mileage varies, shame those that are making you feel that way.

~~~
pardees
Hey, I'm the author! I agree, more needs to be done, which is why I talked
about the code of conduct. Unfortunately, most tech startups and tech events
don't have any protection in place for those feeling harassed to say anything.

Your comment on shaming assumes that the industry sees all women and men on
equal footing, instead of based on their social clout. The most disturbing
trend I've noticed as a women in tech for 4 years is that predatory, well-
known men target new up-and-coming women on the scene so if the women do
complain, the men will pretty much be untouchable.

