So, what's the question here?

You think maybe that the predominance of straight white men in technology
is innately right?  That other genders and races aren't capable of doing
the job, so all those white male losers and assholes that we have to deal
with are objectively the best people for the jobs they hold?

Or are you thinking that maybe all those white male losers got their skills
and jobs through some sort of structural inequity that tilted the
competition in their favor?  That a kind of in-group altruism is operating
here, where white men give each other a pass while agreeing to allow the
jerks among them to beat up the women, persons of color, and non-normative
gender identities so those uppity not male, not white, not straight
competitors have to wade through piles of shit that straight white men
never meet?

If you grant that the competition has been tilted in the past and is still
tilted the present, by whatever mysterious mechanisms there might be that
help some while hindering others, then it's hard to argue that the same
mysterious mechanisms won't find their way into the future.

-- rec --



On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 12:38 PM, Marcus G. Daniels <mar...@snoutfarm.com>wrote:

> Astra Taylor writes:
>
> ``Those women who do fight their way into the industry often end up
> leaving -- their attrition rate is 56%, or double that of men -- and
> sexism is a big part of what pushes them out. “I no longer touch code
> because I couldn't deal with the constant dismissing and undermining of
> even my most basic work by the ‘brogramming’ gulag I worked for,” wrote
> one woman in a roundup of answers to the question: Why there are so few
> female engineers?''
>
> Women form cliques too.  I'm all for prohibiting all of this (coalition
> formation and politics) from the work place, but that's not likely to
> happen.  Make it as taboo as sexual harassment.  Some people believe
> that this is all part of what gives a team good morale and
> communication.  I think that's nonsense.  A good team is made of people
> that are engaged in the technical work, and not each other.
>
> My experience is that, in the world of software engineering, women are
> often easier to work with then men.  Often they have better listening
> skills and better impulse control -- and so there is less of the Not
> Invented Here syndrome which plagues so many projects.  But only so many
> `family oriented' people will work 12-16 hour days.
>
> Marcus
>
>
>
>
>
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