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If this kind of post can be dismissed as cliche, its an indication of a problem in the industry and not with the writer. The commenters that preceded me would

• exstudent2 11y ago
  What problem in the industry do you think this is pointing out? Someone told their manager that they were uncomfortable working with her, and she said it's sexism. Seems to me the co-worker did the right thing by going to their manager instead of being a jerk/passive aggressive. People probably think it's cliche because she uses the air conditioning is patriarchy argument.
  • lukev 11y ago
    What problem is this pointing out? Sexism, obviously. And your response is another, classic example of the same problem; you're willing to give the guy in the story the benefit of the doubt while summarily dismissing the woman's complaint. In other words, in a literal case of "he said, she said" you side with the male by default. Uncool.
    • exstudent2 11y ago
      I'm literally going off of the facts she states in her post. The guy said he's uncomfortable around her. This is not a gendered issue, this is an interpersonal issue and not even a bad one. This co-worker told the manager about an issue he perceived but he in no way treated the author of this piece maliciously.
      • hypnos1 11y ago
        The facts you're ignoring are his characterization of female colleagues and contacts as "chicks", and allegedly repeated behavior of talking about his sexual encounters in the office. This is the type of behavior that can lead to a hostile work environment suit.
        • exstudent2 11y ago
          If it bothered her she should have brought it up with her manager. Instead she's making a big deal out of it after the fact.
      • lukev 11y ago
        The author also gives her analysis of the situation, to which you give no credence at all. In other words, when a woman writes an entire post about an experience: "I perceive sexism at my workplace", your immediate reaction is "your perception is invalid, given the facts!" even though you don't work there and don't know any of the people involved. Sexism. I apologize for the confrontational tone, but I am so frustrated by the casual misogyny among otherwise intelligent people on venues like HN.
        • exstudent2 11y ago
          She's casually calling people rapists in her post and you're saying that to not support that is sexist. I don't think there's anything we're going to agree on.
          • lukev 11y ago
            I'm saying that to deliberately undermine and dismiss the experiences of women in our field, in a public forum, is sexist. This is true regardless of whether you find their rhetoric agreeable or not.
            • exstudent2 11y ago
              Disagreeing with a woman is not sexism. My comments on this article would be the same regardless of the author's gender.
              • Mz 11y ago
                No, disagreeing with a woman is not sexism. The problem is that men readily speak up to disagree with us, rarely speak up to agree, validate, genuinely encourage, etc. When all you hear is disagreement, when that is the only way an entire segment of the population will engage you, it is a real problem. I am debating flagging this piece. I see no good coming of it and I am frustrated that this stuff gets upvoted and then verbally pissed on when better stuff gets ignored.
  • greenyoda 11y ago
    "Someone told their manager that they were uncomfortable working with her... Seems to me the co-worker did the right thing by going to their manager instead of being a jerk/passive aggressive." You're drawing a false dichotomy. The third option (other than going to his manager or being a jerk) would have been to realize that not everyone at work is going to be his friend, and not complain about feeling uncomfortable because this woman wasn't acting towards him in the way he assumed she should. A mature person would only complain to his manager about someone's behavior if it was clearly in violation of societal norms (hostile, racist, sexist, etc.). Feeling vaguely uncomfortable about somebody doesn't fall into that category.
    • exstudent2 11y ago
      We don't know how she was acting. If it was anything like her blog post, then he absolutely did the right thing by going to his manager. We only have one piece of information and it doesn't make her look good.
• ciconia 11y ago
  Not just the "industry", it's modern culture in general. There's a lot of pressure being put on women from a very young age as to how they should talk, dress, and generally behave. The fact that there are so few female programmers shows that the problem is education and culture. Take kids' books - 95% of the time it's the boy who goes on adventure, and the girl just sits there waiting to be rescued or given by her father to the male hero. Then you go to toy store and the girl toys are all about makeup and nail polish, while the boys get to actually do stuff. I really don't understand how women can take this shit, and I say this as a white male.