3 ms·

The Problem with the Lack of Women in Tech Is Men

3 points by kayseem 10y ago

angersock 10y ago
Something seems a bit off about the geek-cred timeline flashed at the beginning: I had my first email address in 1989. It was via Prodigy. Then, a year or two later, we got AOL. My email was kelly at aol dot com. (Yes, for those wondering, I kick my ass nearly every day for deleting that account for something cute and trendy, as a 10 year old would.) Also, when I was 10, I designed my first website. One of many I would learn to code the hard way, via raw HTML and CSS. According to Wikipedia, CSS first came out around '96. HTML around '93. So, if the author was at the forefront of technology, and made her first web page with CSS, she would've been born around '86. Or, more generously, maybe she just used tables and had been born in '83. Either way, she would've had an email address in when was 3 or 6 years old, depending on which of the above is true. Or, you know, she's just recounting this all wrong. There is very little programming involved in CSS/HTML. I respect design work, but conflating that with development is not helping her case. ~ At no point in this article did the author bother to make a clear distinction between the "tech industry" made up of hardworking developers and engineers and sysadmins and managers and the "tech industry" made up of spammy blog writers and advertising folks and feel-good event coordinators and media strategists. I don't mind having a frank discussion about the shortcomings--of which there are many!--in how engineering cultures handle diversity. I do, however, greatly dislike being tarred with the same brush as the dudebros who infest more business-oriented cultures by a writer too lazy or complacent to articulate her biased perspective and who has as much to do with technology as Medium does with RFCs.
- kayseem 10y ago
  Hi, author here. You're good -- I was born in 1985. So, to clarify or rather verify my "geekcred" I did have an email address from Prodigy, generated by my dad, in 1989, I picked up the design and (weak) programming of websites when I was 10. (The conflation of design and programming was a result of the initial lack of Photoshop skills, which I later picked up.) I used Geocities as a host for a few years, then friends who had servers and set up the domains I needed for me. This was, honestly, beyond me back then, but it worked and I manually updloaded the index and css, etc files. It was a nightmare. At some point I started using Greymatter which helped dramatically. I don't make a distinction of titles or how other types of diversity because in this short article (albeit long for medium) that wasn't my immediate point. My point was one of the need for larger discussion that DOES IN FACT involve how different roles in the -- and I"ll say -- very large and vague "tech industry" -- experience discrimination AND how other diversity challenges are handled. And that is what we need to do, beyond my point of changing the ratio. Talk about it. That might not solve the immediate issue, but we absolutely need to have larger discussions and bring them to the table; and if there is a visible sign of a lack of women, at anywhere, because of any reason....then do something about it.
  - angersock 10y ago
    Thank you for your elaborations. :) When I wrote my comment to your article here it really caused me to think that that lack of discussion and distinction between the different roles is probably a good chunk of the source of friction against improving diversity. What do you think would be some good starting questions for such a discussion?
    - kayseem 10y ago
      As a journalist, questions are my thing. But this one is hard, as it could be framed as a way to start it within your company; or at a panel; or for an interview. Here are a few broad questions that I think we need to start with and answer immediately: - Why are different departments within a tech company (c-level, marketing, programming IT, sales, etc) experiencing this lack of diversity so differently? - Some of the "soft" (or, uh, smarmy) side of tech tends to get the bad rap for treating women like shit more than others in a tech company. Is this a truth or a stigma? If its a truth...why is this happening? - Are other people of diversity feeling similar exclusion? What is their experience like? Where are THEIR stories? - And to wrap it up... this is not a new story, or a new conversation. I'd like those at companies that have been named, that we know exclude women (and that I could even name)...why do you do this? Knowing WHY is 99% of the way to figuring out HOW we solve the problem.

3 points by kayseem 10y ago

Something seems a bit off about the geek-cred timeline flashed at the beginning: I had my first email address in 1989. It was via Prodigy. Then, a year or two later, we got AOL. My email was kelly at aol dot com. (Yes, for those wondering, I kick my ass nearly every day for deleting that account for something cute and trendy, as a 10 year old would.) Also, when I was 10, I designed my first website. One of many I would learn to code the hard way, via raw HTML and CSS. According to Wikipedia, CSS first came out around '96. HTML around '93. So, if the author was at the forefront of technology, and made her first web page with CSS, she would've been born around '86. Or, more generously, maybe she just used tables and had been born in '83. Either way, she would've had an email address in when was 3 or 6 years old, depending on which of the above is true. Or, you know, she's just recounting this all wrong. There is very little programming involved in CSS/HTML. I respect design work, but conflating that with development is not helping her case. ~ At no point in this article did the author bother to make a clear distinction between the "tech industry" made up of hardworking developers and engineers and sysadmins and managers and the "tech industry" made up of spammy blog writers and advertising folks and feel-good event coordinators and media strategists. I don't mind having a frank discussion about the shortcomings--of which there are many!--in how engineering cultures handle diversity. I do, however, greatly dislike being tarred with the same brush as the dudebros who infest more business-oriented cultures by a writer too lazy or complacent to articulate her biased perspective and who has as much to do with technology as Medium does with RFCs.

kayseem 10y ago
Hi, author here. You're good -- I was born in 1985. So, to clarify or rather verify my "geekcred" I did have an email address from Prodigy, generated by my dad, in 1989, I picked up the design and (weak) programming of websites when I was 10. (The conflation of design and programming was a result of the initial lack of Photoshop skills, which I later picked up.) I used Geocities as a host for a few years, then friends who had servers and set up the domains I needed for me. This was, honestly, beyond me back then, but it worked and I manually updloaded the index and css, etc files. It was a nightmare. At some point I started using Greymatter which helped dramatically. I don't make a distinction of titles or how other types of diversity because in this short article (albeit long for medium) that wasn't my immediate point. My point was one of the need for larger discussion that DOES IN FACT involve how different roles in the -- and I"ll say -- very large and vague "tech industry" -- experience discrimination AND how other diversity challenges are handled. And that is what we need to do, beyond my point of changing the ratio. Talk about it. That might not solve the immediate issue, but we absolutely need to have larger discussions and bring them to the table; and if there is a visible sign of a lack of women, at anywhere, because of any reason....then do something about it.
- angersock 10y ago
  Thank you for your elaborations. :) When I wrote my comment to your article here it really caused me to think that that lack of discussion and distinction between the different roles is probably a good chunk of the source of friction against improving diversity. What do you think would be some good starting questions for such a discussion?
  - kayseem 10y ago
    As a journalist, questions are my thing. But this one is hard, as it could be framed as a way to start it within your company; or at a panel; or for an interview. Here are a few broad questions that I think we need to start with and answer immediately: - Why are different departments within a tech company (c-level, marketing, programming IT, sales, etc) experiencing this lack of diversity so differently? - Some of the "soft" (or, uh, smarmy) side of tech tends to get the bad rap for treating women like shit more than others in a tech company. Is this a truth or a stigma? If its a truth...why is this happening? - Are other people of diversity feeling similar exclusion? What is their experience like? Where are THEIR stories? - And to wrap it up... this is not a new story, or a new conversation. I'd like those at companies that have been named, that we know exclude women (and that I could even name)...why do you do this? Knowing WHY is 99% of the way to figuring out HOW we solve the problem.