

I want to work with more women - shakes
http://blog.dwolla.com/i-want-to-work-with-more-women/

======
Asparagirl
_sighs_ Look, I would not want to work somewhere if there was even the
slightest chance that I got the job on account of my gender. I do not want to
be some progressive nice guy's feel-good story, I want to be good at what I
do. So while I do appreciate this enthusiasm for helping women succeed in
tech, I respectfully would ask that the best way to help is to mentor, teach,
and advise -- not to make us feel like we've become someone's pet diversity
project. I mean, I want to be a great coder someday, not a great woman coder,
y'know?

In short: help us tap into resources and conferences and classes and seminars
where we can hone our skills, and we can take it from there. (Etsy's recent
program to develop more female engineers is probably the gold standard to
emulate in this regard: [http://www.fastcolabs.com/3005681/how-hack-broken-
gender-dyn...](http://www.fastcolabs.com/3005681/how-hack-broken-gender-
dynamics-workplace) ) Help us network and hack and build shit. Submit pull
requests to our lonely little open source projects. Call other guys out
publicly if they act like jerks to us at conferences. Just...please don't blog
about how you wish we would come keep you company at your start-up, as if we
were elusive butterflies you want to pin to your wall.

Also? Every time the "women in tech" conversation happens, the elephant in the
living room that no one likes to mention is that women tend to be the primary
caregivers for their kids (or later, for their elderly parents, or disabled
siblings, etc.). This is true of techie women too, and it totally has an
effect on the kinds of jobs we take, and when. Most techie women I know have
young kids at home or are planning to have them within the next few years
before our biological clocks run out. (I'm 34 and I have two, ages 5 and 2.)
Does a start-up like Dwolla offer childcare credits or benefits? Onsite
daycare? Emergency nanny services? Because a lot of big companies do this, but
a lot of startups have no idea that these benefits even exist, much less offer
them to their employees.

If I know I'm going to be going back to work full-time after having children,
what kind of a company do you think I'm going to look at first, a traditional
big company or a start-up? Which one is going to likely offer me better hours
and more stability, at a time when my income (and health benefits) are really
crucial to other people who are depending upon it? And that's to say nothing
of the culture at the company. Do I want to work at some start-up that
advertises beer nights and paid company dinners as if they're obvious perks,
when I honestly look at them and think that ugh, this is yet more time I would
have to spend away from my kids.

In short, our priorities may not mesh perfectly with your priorities. :-)

~~~
JoeAltmaier
He really just asked for applications, which were lacking. Not a whiff of any
'quota' or special consideration - just wanting applications.

Why do you think they are missing? Women have degrees; women don't apply to
program computers. Can you add something to the conversation?

~~~
Asparagirl
You mean, add something besides the concrete examples I gave of why women
might not want to work at a start-up, or the first-hand experiences I noted
being the exact demographic he's talking to/about?

(Oh HN, don't ever change.)

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Thanks, yes, like that. But brushing off attempts to hire women as never quite
the right attitude, never quite the right job, sounds like making excuses.

There are a lot of women. Either few (none) like working at startups, or
there's something about the application process that is filtering half the
population out.

You can just complain that every job offends you somehow, and it might, but
what about all the rest who aren't like you?

------
anjc
10 women out of 40 are women is prrrrobably a higher proportion than most tech
companies, no?

This strikes me as being a little bit...weird, and could maybe put women
off..? Perhaps it could be explained in a more robust manner than saying they
have excellent planning skills and have "exceptional minds" as if it's some
sort of universal truth. It comes across as sounding artificial and...weird.

------
hacker789
Young men and women of HN: If you apply to Ben Milne's company, he won't be
particularly excited if he discovers you have a penis. If he discovers have a
vagina, though, he'll be _much_ more excited.

Good for you, Ben.

As I'm sure many of you have noticed, it's almost always hyper-privileged men
who triumphantly make these (and similar) pronouncements. And as always, by
urinating on lower-status men, Ben risks very little social standing; his
potential social benefits, however, are enormous.

