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So your response is that it's not a problem in tech because it's a problem elsewhere?

Why are you defending sexism?




The mirror question would be: is there a limit to how bad sexism is? Is it worse than murder? Theft? Speeding? Passing gas in public?

Finding an exact ranking is of course an academic question. But the take-no-prisoners, root-it-out-at-any-cost ("Why are you defending sexism?" without nuance[0]) attitude communicates that feminism is an unreasonable (in the sense that it cannot be reasoned with) entity. If name-and-shame on an industrial scale ("Men in tech") continues despite widespread efforts and initiatives to correct problematic behavior, than a cost-benefit analysis leads to the conclusion that there is nothing to be gained by said efforts and initiatives[1].

I am fully aware that "feminism" is not a coherent organization and actions of individuals aren't necessarily representative of the wider movement, but I submit that that's a strategic problem for the movement.

Here is what my intuition tells me: a)there is more sexism in the financial sector, and b) the financial sector is more resistant to change. A large feminist organization might have the resources, vision, and endurance to make an impact on the financial sector, but an army of individuals will collectively flock to the low-hanging fruit of technology. This is completely understandable at the activist level, but leads to credibility problems for the movement as a whole when the truth-tellers fail to speak truth where it is most needed.

[0]Recommended: http://squid314.livejournal.com/329561.html

[1]The crazy thing about cost-benefit analyses is that no one ever has to actually do them to react to them; society is a giant genetic algorithm selecting for individuals and organizations that act as if they had done them. Antibiotics, mismanaged, may give us superbugs; if feminism is done wrong, will it give us super-sexists?


So now it's 'because there's more sexism in finance, but less noise from women fighting it, it's not credible when women fight sexism in tech'.

I ask again. Why are you defending sexism?




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