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That's because Indian (particularly) men consider engineering to be a safe choice (source: am Indian). Anecdotally, speaking to women (esp American), they find
by pj_mukh 10y ago
That's because Indian (particularly) men consider engineering to be a safe choice (source: am Indian). Anecdotally, speaking to women (esp American), they find engineering to be categorically unsafe from a career progress perspective. You may not 'see' the bias, but they definitely feel it. The effect is measurable.
I am no expert, maybe it has something to do with maternity leave regimes or the interviews (like OP mentions)?
- mark-r 10y agoMy wife worked as a programmer for a while. There were two aspects that drove her out. First was the cliquey nature of the guys she worked with, she just felt like she didn't fit in. Second was the rate of change, just as she felt like she mastered something the new flavor of the month would take hold and she had to start over.
- facepalm 10y agoWhat is she doing instead now?
- mark-r 10y agoWhen our first child was born she decided to take a sideline sales business and make it full time, working from home. She does very well, in her peak year she made more than I did.
- dozzie 10y agoA man would feel unfit in exactly the same way when put into an environment composed of mostly women (e.g. teacher in ground education). No surprise here. Then, your wife must have worked with dynamic web pages (a.k.a. web applications), probably frontend, to have that tool churn. Other areas don't change that quickly and even then new tool allows to use most of the past experience.
- balls187 10y agoMy wife is white, PhD in engineering. She choose the field because that is what she was excited about and wanted to study. Still works in Tech. Is a mother. Not so great maternity benefits though.
- weberc2 10y agoGoogle offers 18 weeks of maternity leave, and (according to the article at least) they still aren't doing any better than the industry as a whole. I also wonder how much of this perception is the result of a society that tells some groups that everyone is out to get them. Related: https://www.reddit.com/r/TiADiscussion/comments/5arevk/new_to_west_coast_burned_out_on_social_justice/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TiADiscussion/comments/5arevk/new_t...
- pbhjpbhj 10y agoCould you qualify the particular geographic area you're referring to. Google are a multinational, only giving 18 weeks maternity leave would be illegal in the UK, for example (https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/leave https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/leave).
- weberc2 10y agoPresumably the U.S., but my source doesn't specify.
- pj_mukh 10y agoMaybe they are inadvertently out to get them? Other than anecdotal stories telling otherwise the numbers show that there is something about the culture that women find openly hostile. We can either tell them to 'get over it' ('thats just the way it is') or change the culture. I don't think the former will work.