
Women in tech, from a man in tech - drydenwilliams
http://www.drydenwilliams.co.uk/tech/2016/05/15/women-in-tech/
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galistoca
While I agree with some of the comments he makes, I think he's making some
extreme assumptions.

I didn't get into CS because I am anti-social. I got in because it's the
awesomest thing ever. Why? If I trace back, I remember thinking it's super
cool to be a "hacker" (Not in the diluted sense people use the term nowadays
but actually people who would pull off things most people thought were
impossible). And having many friends actually helps in this case because the
more friends think I'm cool the more I will put my effort into it.

If you think deeper about why this is the case, I think it was because most of
my friends also thought it was the coolest thing ever. It is very cool to be
able to do things that other people are unable to do. This is probably because
guys tend to have more guy friends than girl friends. If I had more girl
friends, I probably may have grew up valuing different things.

Which means, I think the core reason why there aren't enough girls in tech is
NOT because the industry treats them badly (Not saying that's not true, but
just saying that's not the most important reason), but because of the
difference in social environment girls and boys grow up in.

Basically if you're a girl in elementary school who want to become a hacker,
probably very few of your friends will think you're the coolest person ever.
What happens then? Then you don't feel as motivated to learn to program as if
you were a boy.

At this stage these girls and boys couldn't care less about if Tech companies
will pay them more or not in a decade. They just want to do things that are
considered cool by their peers. For boys hacking tends to be relatively higher
up (probably lower than sports though), while for girls it's pretty much at
the bottom.

That's why I think all this "gender equality in tech" issue is something that
you can't solve by hiring more women and stuff. It won't work if it doesn't
naturally happen since everything was determined during our youth.

~~~
drydenwilliams
Hi galistoca, Thanks for your comment, I think you nailed what I was trying to
say with "social environment girls and boys grow up in" and "They just want to
do things that are considered cool by their peers. For boys hacking tends to
be relatively higher up (probably lower than sports though), while for girls
it's pretty much at the bottom."

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GFK_of_xmaspast
Given that the final paragraph is an un-ironic "#notallmen", it's not clear
that the author actually read any of those """so many tweets and blog post
titled “We need to make diversity second nature” and “Tech industry
stereotypes are hindering equality” and many other such thought provoking
title’s [sic]""".

