
The Tech diversity story not being told (2014) - bootload
https://medium.com/message/the-tech-diversity-story-thats-not-being-told-9a36fb40530f
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jankiel
How does that compare to overall percentage of women (and minorities for that
matter) in the industry? Maybe it's not a problem with big, evil corporations
that they don't want to hire woman, but there's simply 10 male asian
candidates for 1 black female and the rest is statistics? I'm doing master of
science right now and 10% of students are female. How can that later translate
to 50/50 hired workers with master degree? Should we hire people from the
street because diversity? Serious question, I don't understand what's up with
diversity issue.

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kbart
Exactly. I studied engineering and there were 3 girls out of 70-80 students. I
don't get this forced diversion based on percentage (you _must_ hire 50%
women/minorities or else be flamed as sexist/racist), but where to get them??
This problem should be solved starting from foundation (children education),
not stupid, irrational quotas.

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tptacek
There is no company with more than 10 employees _in the entire industry_ that
has a "50% women/minorities" quota.

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s_baby
Asian women are also statistically over represented. But that doesn't fit that
narrative of this post so ignore.

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brighteyes
[2014]

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orionblastar
Women only make up 18% of comp sci majors. If you want more women in computers
encourage them to study comp sci. If they don't they may not be qualified for
the jobs.

It is all a matter of having an interest in learning. I have African-American
friends who I offered to teach them programming so they could get a job. But
they refused and had no interest. It really is that a person has to have an
interest in learning something in order to be qualified for a job. The
diversity problem could be not enough women and minorities with an interest in
learning comp sci and programming and other things.

Asians have an interest in learning comp sci, which is why there are more
qualified applicants from Asia and get more jobs.

At one time programming was done by mostly women.
[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/computer-
programmin...](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/computer-programming-
used-to-be-womens-work-718061/)

But that changed and women weren't hired as much as men and women gave it up
and then lost interest in learning.

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prmph
> "But that changed and women weren't hired as much as men and women gave it
> up and then lost interest in learning."

That's kind of the point, isn't it? By your own admission, hiring patterns
might be based on factors other than representation, which then translates
into decreased interest by under-represented groups.

~~~
sheepmullet
It's just a "good" sounding narrative. How about a different one:

It looks like it all changed once we hit the early personal computer era.
Suddenly, you could learn on your own time, and many more men did than women.

Now companies realised they could skimp on training and get away with it.

Women then thought... "Hey going into a career where I am competing with men
who have invested hundreds of hours before they turn 18 and where most
learning is expected to happen in your own time is crazy"

Even today the narrative is learn on your own time if you want to be
successful. If companies _really_ give a damn about diversity then they will
start incorporating learning on the job.

...oh wait instead they are pushing to get young girls to invest in IT just
like some young boys do.

~~~
orionblastar
Personal Computers were marketed towards boys and not girls. Some like the
Commodore and Atari series were video game consoles that you could also
program on and cost $399 or under for the base system. Boys would buy them for
the video games and then buy a tape or floppy drive to learn how to program
and save their programs.

When I grew up in the 1980s, girls didn't have an interest in personal
computers and video games. Didn't have an interest in Star Wars or Star Trek
or other sci fi that the boys had. Over time men into those things taught
their daughters how to use a personal computer and program and get into sci fi
like Star Wars and Star Trek. Then once social networks came about and mobile
devices more girls got into computers to use them at least.

But yes on the job training and learning is needed for diversity reasons. When
women first got into computers and programming they got trained on the job.
Started out punching cards, and later wrote programs with some training and on
the job experience. That all changed when personal computers came out and then
companies no longer hired women and trained them on the job or helped them
learn at work. Boys learned in their own spare time by typing in programs from
magazines and learning how to modify them during the personal computer era.

