<story><title>Women in tech - Stop talking, start coding</title><url>http://www.hilarymason.com/blog/stop-talking-start-coding/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jcnnghm</author><text>This whole premise is stupid.  We don&apos;t seem to have a problem with the lack of female linesmen, plumbers, construction workers, electricians, HVAC specialists, or garbage men.  There isn&apos;t a pest control or sewage treatment Barbie.  There also isn&apos;t a problem when 57% of college graduates are female.&lt;p&gt;If women want to work in tech, nothing is stopping them.  They can learn to program, and write code.  This is something that you can teach yourself, you don&apos;t need to deal with or rely upon anyone else.  It seems that the problem is, at least as described by the New York Times, that women don&apos;t want to log the hours, and they want to do something that&apos;s more social.  That&apos;s fine, there is nothing wrong with that.  But they may be better off doing something other than writing code if that&apos;s the case.&lt;p&gt;Women log fewer hours in other areas as well.  Female doctors see fewer patients than male doctors, and female lawyers are much less likely to make partner because they log far fewer hours than male lawyers.  There is nothing wrong with this.  Men and women are different.  This isn&apos;t inherently bad or wrong.&lt;p&gt;Disclaimer: My staff is 80% female.  We received more qualified female applicants than male applicants, so that&apos;s who we hired.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Dove</author><text>Thank you for saying this.&lt;p&gt;As a woman in tech, I&apos;ve never experienced any hostility, any implication I didn&apos;t belong.  I was never intimidated by male professors and TAs and lab partners; I saw them as programmers first.  I never lacked for role models and heroes because it never occurred to me to ask that they be women.  I never had any requirements beyond &apos;great hacker&apos;.&lt;p&gt;What I did find frustrating was the obsequious encouragement to stay.  Extra scholarships I qualified for.  My pick of lab partners.  Professional societies just for women.  The expectation that enrolling or hiring me would make some bean counter somewhere very happy.&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s frustrating because it leaves me wondering if I&apos;m held to a lower standard.  Would my work actually stand out if I weren&apos;t a woman?  When people tell me I&apos;ve done a good job, are they silently adding, &quot;. . . for a girl&quot; ?  Am I going to get upvotes on this comment just for being a woman, and not necessarily for being insightful?&lt;p&gt;Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of people trying to artificially import women into the field is that sometimes they succeed.  There were always women who were there because they got extra attention and extra help.  Women who wouldn&apos;t shut up about what it was like to be a developer and -- holy crap -- a woman!  At the same time!  It was, like, worth running a whole blog about!&lt;p&gt;The more women like that there were running around, the harder I felt I had to work to differentiate myself from them.  I don&apos;t want to be &quot;second rate, but that&apos;s okay because thank God somebody got a woman to stick around.&quot;  I don&apos;t want to be, &quot;wow, that&apos;s awesome work and--HEY IT&apos;S A WOMAN, THIS IS FRONT PAGE MATERIAL!&quot;  I want to do first rate work and be criticized and compete and fight obscurity right along with everyone else.&lt;p&gt;There aren&apos;t many women in tech.  And there are even fewer of them in the really upper echelons.  Then again, that&apos;s true in general.  Whatever the reason, women in tough, competitive fields are rare, and the tougher and more competitive and more elite it gets, the rarer they are.  I don&apos;t know why that is.  Frankly, I don&apos;t care.  It&apos;s not a justification for hamstringing the women who are the exceptions--and no one throughout history has ever said it is.  But treating it like a problem just &lt;i&gt;makes&lt;/i&gt; problems for people like me.&lt;p&gt;Seriously, just let people do what they want to do and be who they want to be and stop &lt;i&gt;worrying&lt;/i&gt; about why they choose what they choose.</text></comment>
<story><title>Women in tech - Stop talking, start coding</title><url>http://www.hilarymason.com/blog/stop-talking-start-coding/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jcnnghm</author><text>This whole premise is stupid.  We don&apos;t seem to have a problem with the lack of female linesmen, plumbers, construction workers, electricians, HVAC specialists, or garbage men.  There isn&apos;t a pest control or sewage treatment Barbie.  There also isn&apos;t a problem when 57% of college graduates are female.&lt;p&gt;If women want to work in tech, nothing is stopping them.  They can learn to program, and write code.  This is something that you can teach yourself, you don&apos;t need to deal with or rely upon anyone else.  It seems that the problem is, at least as described by the New York Times, that women don&apos;t want to log the hours, and they want to do something that&apos;s more social.  That&apos;s fine, there is nothing wrong with that.  But they may be better off doing something other than writing code if that&apos;s the case.&lt;p&gt;Women log fewer hours in other areas as well.  Female doctors see fewer patients than male doctors, and female lawyers are much less likely to make partner because they log far fewer hours than male lawyers.  There is nothing wrong with this.  Men and women are different.  This isn&apos;t inherently bad or wrong.&lt;p&gt;Disclaimer: My staff is 80% female.  We received more qualified female applicants than male applicants, so that&apos;s who we hired.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mattm</author><text>I just finished reading the book &quot;Why Men Earn More&quot; by Warren Farrell.  He does a good job of going into more depth about the gender differences among different industries.</text></comment>