
Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? - rusanu
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39579321
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LeeHwang
dupe of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14164600](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14164600)

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samuell
Yep ... only .com instead of .co.uk

Strange that bbc doesn't have some resolving setup for that ... dupes
supposedly being bad for SEO and all ...

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voice_of_reason
The article is somewhat ironic, in light of the fact that in comparison to
Western Europe, Russia is a very sexist society. Gender stereotypes are
extremely common here (one can safely express them with no fear of getting a
reprimand from local PC officer), gender identity politics is non-existent,
and feminism is ridiculed, mocked or considered weird by the majority of
people I've met.

~~~
mistermann
I think I must be misunderstanding you...when you say the article is ironic,
do you mean it is wrong?

To me it is the behavior of non-Russian societies behavior towards women that
is ironic, acting as if there was this huge conspiracy from society to "keep
women down", which I've always felt was utter nonsense but you dare not say
such things in polite company, whereas according to this article, it is
actually these do-gooders who think they are trying to help women who are
_actually the ones harming them_!

That must be what you were thinking as well and I just misinterpreted you?

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voice_of_reason
Ironic in a sense that "misogynist" Russian society is "better" at
"encouraging women into tech" than enlightened Brave New World of the West.

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mpweiher
Because they have to?

" in Russia, even the very youngest were extremely focused on the fact that
their future employment opportunities were more likely to be rooted in Stem
subjects."

In the west, women/girls can choose what they _want_ to do, rather than what
they feel they _have_ to do out of economic necessity.

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zakirenish
Most of those girls were born not long after soviet union fall apart. Upcoming
generation is similar to the rest of the world, all girls want to be models,
lawyers or economists.

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uyoakaoma
How do duplicates work? Just wondering which one should be considered
duplicate. I am seeing that this was the first article submitted

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lasermike026
I've worked with a number of eastern European female engineers and developers.
Their math skills were excellent. They were educated during the soviet era and
it appears that they were not encumbered with the educational sexism that we
see in the states. Math, science, and technology were subjects to be explored
not avoided.

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douche
Was just on the front page a few minutes ago

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14164600](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14164600)

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lawless123
Very interesting article , shows how young a persons interests develop.

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british_india
That's an easy answer: Russia is now and has always been a Matriarchy.

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voice_of_reason
The majority (if not 100%) of Russia's ruling oligarchy are men, but many laws
are indeed biased in favor of women. Woman will likely receive less severe
punishment for committing a crime than man does, the mandatory conscription
into the military is applied to males only, etc.

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Tharre
> Woman will likely receive less severe punishment for committing a crime than
> man

Is there a country in the western world where this isn't the case?

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linkmotif
Because Russia doesn't have a culture where money and food fall out of the sky
and everyone is a winner.

~~~
kesselvon
No, because the attitude of "X field is for Y gender doesn't really exist".
But people are as sexist as ever

~~~
linkmotif
How does that statement even make sense?

If sexism exists, and Russia is top-dollar chauvinist, why would that not
transfer to the workplace?

Russian people objectify women perhaps more than in the West, but they don't
treat them as sex objects in the way that demands they be good for nothing
except sex. Which is what you find in the West and other parts of the world.
They're fine with them being sex objects, but they're also fine with them
going out and being people and getting paper.

