

An open letter to women in technology - clinton
http://reprage.com/post/an-open-letter-to-women-in-technology/

======
SteveDeFacto
Honestly, society's gender roles are a result of our biology and not just
dogmatic stereotyping. The truth is that women are biologically more
interested in social occupations. It comes down to the way humans evolved and
the attributes which make a good mother. Men are biologically more interested
in thing based occupations which is why there are so many men in science and
technology.

Note the behavioral effects of autism which is known to be the result of an
extreme male brain
([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12039606](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12039606)).
The ratio of women born with autism is 1 to every 4 men. By simply measuring
traits that indicate the levels of testosterone during gestation they can even
accurately predict SAT scores ([http://www.livescience.com/7290-finger-length-
predicts-sat-p...](http://www.livescience.com/7290-finger-length-predicts-sat-
performance.html)). There was an interesting Norwegian documentary which
covered this topic pretty well
([http://youtu.be/AZoRihmI1Ug](http://youtu.be/AZoRihmI1Ug)).

~~~
zebra
Then let's make STEM look more social when career choices are made.

~~~
tekalon
Isn't that what conferences, hacker/maker spaces, 'women in STEM' lunches are
doing? My sister who was interested in math and physics in high school had a
female teacher/mentor that had competitions and math clubs. Half of the
participating students were female (including me). That was a major
encouragement that got me into computers. It took until I was done with a
degree in history for me to realise that humanities don't pay (well), and I
like computing. Neither my sister or I are very social (she has autism and I
have social anxiety). What would have helped is less 'social' and more
mentoring and available resources, which I am seeing being more and more
available than what I had in high school.

~~~
SteveDeFacto
Going out on a limb here but are both your parents high-achievers?
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2064478/Autism-
lin...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2064478/Autism-linked-
clever-parents-Are-high-achieving-parents-rise-autistic-children.html)

~~~
tekalon
Not particularly (as hard as it is for a child to say about their parents). My
mother has ADHD, and only diagnosed 2-3 years ago, which caused issues in
school and work and any other ambitions. We're pretty sure my father has
autism, but getting him formally diagnosed would make no difference. Due to
him being in finance during the recession, he had trouble adapting to the new
career environment.

------
spindritf
> Almost instantly, society began to bombard her with images and objects

As we abandon religion, we always seem to replace it with another omnipotent
entity. Government, society, media... The problem with those is that we also
like to believe that they can be influenced and their power used for our ends
-- finally, a god who listens.

And so while everyone pays lip service to science and evolution, actual belief
in an uncaring universe shaped by mutation and death remains as rare as it
ever was.

~~~
jamesaguilar
Preferring a less brutish world is not the same as believing in religion. And
history demonstrates that society _can_ be influenced to that end.

------
parennoob
"I realised that those six young women in my university class, who had managed
to make their way into a lecture theatre filled with other hopeful engineers,
were probably the most remarkable of all of us. The guys had it easy: we were
actively encouraged by society into these pursuits, and nobody blinked an eye
when we walked into that lecture theatre."

This sort of generalization is totally fallacious and completely ignores the
fact that various groups of men too, (for example, those belonging to certain
minority groups) are also seen as outsiders in technology. This pervasive
attitude of "oh yeah, you're a guy, you probably have it very easy" can be
extremely damaging towards their development and self-esteem.

[Anecdotally, during college in the US, the women I knew in engineering were
there because they liked it, and so were the men. I don't recall _anyone_
expressing surprise that there were women in the class, it was more surprise
that there were so few of them. So I would actually argue that the reform
needs to happen mainly _outside_ the classroom -- in society as a whole.]

If you want to be inclusive in tech, (which is a good thing), be _completely_
inclusive -- men, women, and transgender people of all communities are
welcome. Some of them have had it easy, others have had it hard. This can be
due to a variety of socio-economic factors. Telling one group "you are special
and remarkable" and saying that "the others had it easy" are over-simplifying
the situation and trivialising the problems faced by other groups.

~~~
kobot
I agree with this. This blog post just feels like this guy is saying "Good
job! You exist!". I'd rather be praised for my effort and hard work than my
gender.

~~~
clinton
Thank you! Your hard work, and desire to be recognised for your efforts rather
than your gender will make it just that little bit easier for my daughter to
follow in your footsteps (if technology is her chosen vocation).

~~~
parennoob
Yes, thankfully it will also make it easier for many underprivileged male and
female children to participate in tech and be recognized for _their_ efforts.

An important thing to note here is that "I had it easy" is a different story
from "all of us guys had it easy". How easy _you_ had it is a general
consequence of your socioeconomic background, among which gender is a factor.
Do you know for a fact that the guy on the other side of the class who worked
three other jobs to put himself through the CS program also had an extremely
smooth path through college because he was male?

