“But only so many family oriented' people will work 12-16 hour days.”
This would seem to be the key. All the value-problems in our society would seem to be summarized in this one assertion. If one grants that women are predisposed by physiology to be more tied to infants that men, and that infants become childen, and that a family is made up of infants and children and their parents, and perhaps grandparents, and that, therefore, on average, women are more likely to be family oriented then men, and that, on average, corporations don’t give a shit about the maintenance of families, THEN, on average, women will be paid less than men because, on average, women are less likely to put in 16 hour days (working, or LOOKING like they are working) than men. So if a manager stereotypes candidates for a raise, he or she is less likely to EXPECT 16 hour days from female employees than from male employees. This is not to say that when women do escape the attractors of childbearing and nursing, they are probably better at putting in 16 hour days as men. But if we are to get out of this mess, and if we believe families are important to human individual and collective well-being, we have to find a way to counter the perverse incentives that afflict corporate managers. I think I might start by making it a crime to work more than 8 hours a day or to suborn the working of more than 8 hours a day. See you all tomorrow, Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University <http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Roger Critchlow Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2014 3:26 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Openness amplifies Inequality? 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 <mailto: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 ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
