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It's not about exclusion, it's about preference. We seem to be trying to force a result, in the name of equality, when there may not in fact be any inequality.

It's not about exclusion, it's about preference. We seem to be trying to force a result, in the name of equality, when there may not in fact be any inequality. I'm not saying there isn't sexism in Silicon Valley. I'm saying that trying to steer women into certain fields of study they may not, on average, be as interested in it as men seems really dumb. If companies were really, truly interested in fairness and equality, then their HR policies for hiring would say one and only one thing - that the best candidate is the one that gets the job. Only exception would be issues with background checks or perhaps questionable/falsified work history or resume. Other than that, the rule stands. There would be no need to ensure "diversity" as a corporate policy because any and all minorities that apply and are the best will get hired. In those cases, HR would be there to document in detail who was the best and why to protect the company from frivolous diversity related lawsuits. HR would also act as a check and balance on imperfect and possibly biased individuals.

kristianc 9y ago
> If companies were really, truly interested in fairness and equality, then their HR policies for hiring would say one and only one thing - that the best candidate is the one that gets the job. It's strange though that you will find many engineers who say that HR policies for hiring do a poor job of finding the right engineers for the job (whiteboarding tests, easily gamed, "culture fit" etc), but who don't seem as eager to admit that these factors, rather than "biological differences" could be what are excluding women.
- lawnchair_larry 9y ago
  Whiteboarding tests are not HR policies anywhere. HR has next to nothing to do with who gets hired other than when they intervene. They're typically the last step of the process.

kristianc 9y ago

> If companies were really, truly interested in fairness and equality, then their HR policies for hiring would say one and only one thing - that the best candidate is the one that gets the job. It's strange though that you will find many engineers who say that HR policies for hiring do a poor job of finding the right engineers for the job (whiteboarding tests, easily gamed, "culture fit" etc), but who don't seem as eager to admit that these factors, rather than "biological differences" could be what are excluding women.

lawnchair_larry 9y ago
Whiteboarding tests are not HR policies anywhere. HR has next to nothing to do with who gets hired other than when they intervene. They're typically the last step of the process.