

Is it okay to ask how many women are on the team I'd be working with? - anuragramdasan
http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/17512/is-it-okay-to-ask-how-many-women-are-on-the-team-id-be-working-with

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oneyaccount
I wouldn't work in a team with a suspiciously high % of females. Nothing
against female programmers per se, but if a company values my contributions
less than a female's simply because I have a penis (which seems to be the case
with most so-called "gender equality" programs) then I don't want to work
for/with them.

So I'd say yes, it's okay to ask.

~~~
RougeFemme
My experience with _some_ so-called "gender equality" programs is that the
company will _try_ to value my contributions equally, even though I have a
vagina.

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timr
I'm mortified that the "why is it important to you?" comment has so many
votes.

Protip to men: if you find yourself being reflexively defensive whenever you
have to _think_ about gender equality in this industry, you're part of the
problem.

~~~
yummyfajitas
Why do you believe a person asking the question is "reflexively defensive"?
And what is "the problem" that the person asking is part of?

I don't think I'm the only one who can't understand what you are trying to
say. Could you carefully explain your thoughts in detail, making your
assumptions and values more explicit?

~~~
timr
That comment served no productive purpose toward answering the question. Even
if the response were _" because I hate men"_, the original question would
stand: _is it OK to ask if there are any other women on the team?_ Yes, of
course it is.

It was plainly made to imply that the asker is being _somehow unreasonable_
for even caring about the question at all.

~~~
yummyfajitas
Asking the motivation behind a question is often helpful in _solving the
underlying problem_. For example, a junior programmer I was working with once
asked me how to store arrays in Postgres. I asked why she wanted to, and a
non-answer was the most useful reply: "CREATE TABLE a_many_to_many_b ( a_id
BIGINT REFERENCES(a.id), b_id BIGINT REFERENCES(b.id))." (Skipping indices,
constraints.)

In any case, I'll ask again - could you lay out your reasoning in more detail?
I really can't figure out how you determined this implication of the question,
what "the problem" (as you perceive it to be) is or why you believe it was
"defensive".

------
RougeFemme
I'm a woman and I totally understand why another woman would want to know
that. And when I've been part of an interview panel, the panel was asked that.
I responded that we have a mix of genders and ethnicities.

On the flip side, I've never asked that when interviewing for a position
myself, though I've always been curious; I just assumed that asking would blow
my chances of getting the job. I've always assumed that the team would
probably be all male. And that it could be OK for me either way, depending on
the personalities and attitudes of the team.

~~~
yummyfajitas
_I 'm a woman and I totally understand why another woman would want to know
that._

Could you explain why?

I became curious after timr pointed out a comment asking about this.

~~~
RougeFemme
I've worked on a number of teams that were all male - other than me, of
course. In some cases, I had no issues related to the fact that I'm female. In
other cases, I encountered males who assumed that I was incapable of
performing the job, simply because I was female - and told me so. And even
when I proved myself as capable as them - or more - I was constantly
challenged/tested verbally on my technical capabilities _in ways that the
males were not_. A few people continually told me that I was
hired/retained/promoted simply because I was female. . .even after I had
proven myself to be as capable - or more - than they.

That's quite a mental/emotion drain that males on all/predominantly male teams
don't face - at least regarding their gender. And since all/predominantly
female teams are rare in tech, it's a situation that male techies will rarely,
if ever face, or even need to contemplate - at least regarding their gender.

So, I would be curious because I would wonder if I _might_ encounter sexism on
the team - sexism at a level that would drain/distract me. Well, I never let
it distract me, but it was certainly draining.

~~~
voidr
> That's quite a mental/emotion drain that males on all/predominantly male
> teams don't face - at least regarding their gender.

There are million other ways to give somebody a hard time. There are people
who just want to be assholes, they can accomplish that even if you are white
male.

> So, I would be curious because I would wonder if I might encounter sexism on
> the team - sexism at a level that would drain/distract me. Well, I never let
> it distract me, but it was certainly draining.

What about sexism from women towards men? is that okay?

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voidr
I would say it's a sexist question during an interview, and might possible be
illegal.

~~~
jrs235
I don't think it'd be illegal (in the US anyways). AFAIK only the employer is
legally restricted as to what questions they may ask. I believe a prospective
employee may ask any thing they want. What the employer responds to a question
with might be restricted though.

------
lauradhamilton
Can you just search linkedin and look around the office?

