4 ms·
Here's what I don't understand. Traditionally male-dominated fields rife with harassment issues - like law and medicine - now have much less of a problem, becau
by Archio 9y ago
Here's what I don't understand. Traditionally male-dominated fields rife with harassment issues - like law and medicine - now have much less of a problem, because the gender ratio has been somewhat normalized. Tech companies are actually becoming MORE male dominated - yet medicine and law would be put to shame by the sheer amount of mental and financial resources that tech companies pour into diversity efforts nowadays.
What is different about the tech industry that girls graduating high school are happy to go into studying medicine or law, but don't want to study computer science? It seems the problem starts far before most people think that it does.
- neo4sure 9y agoI can understand it by looking at my own daughters. Without a substantial effort from my part, they tend to gravitate towards nontechnical subjects. Peer pressure, influence from media all play a part in this. The issue is bigger than just a few techi bro's.
- mcv 9y agoAbsolutely. It's a society-wide cultural problem. And both the tech bros, the media image, and the idea that women don't belong there, are bad at it or shouldn't want to be there, are the products of that. Software is one of the few areas where female participation has actually gone down since the 1980s. There used to be more female programmers.
- dsfjksdf 9y agoLaw and medicine are high status jobs, with a lot of people interactions. Yes, programmers have meetings. Not the same level of interaction as medicine, by a long stretch. There are many TV shows glorifying medicine and law. How many TV shows glorify the job of a programmer? How would you make a TV show glorifying the job of a programmer?
- Archio 9y agoSo why do young men study CS in college if programmers aren't glorified? Not to mention that being a "nerd" and "computer whiz" has never been a culturally attractive label, no matter what people might say today.
- jessaustin 9y agoI don't agree with this, but the implication seems to be that women/girls are shallower? Is there some other word to characterize "more likely to make major life decisions based on what the TV says"?
- smelterdemon 9y agoBecause it's one of the only fields you're virtually guaranteed an an above average salary straight out of undergrad and it's an easier path relative to medicine and law
- dsfjksdf 9y agoAnecdotally, it was often guys who had no shot at being high status anyway that chose CS, or earlier, who picked computers as a hobby.
- true_religion 9y agoMen in America, but not in the world in general, are more money conscious than status conscious. They're more likely to salve the idea of not having a respectable job with thinking about how much money they are making.
- mcv 9y agoI doubt it. There are a lot of men who care a great deal about status. I've even heard of men who don't want to date women who make more money than them, because they feel it hurts their status. If they cared more about money, they'd gladly date a richer woman. The problem is this patriarchal idea that men should be the main breadwinner. Our culture tells them they've failed at being men if they're not the main breadwinner. It also tells them they need to go all-out making money, which makes it easier for employers to convince them to make long hours. At the same time, women have this cultural role of mothers, where they should be concerned with having children, and put their children before their job, and therefore can't be expected to work as hard as men. Alright, that doesn't explain why women are more prominent in other hard-working jobs like medicine and law. Still, it's a cultural prejudice that's still very much felt in much of society.
- slededit 9y agoSilicon Valley, Halt & Catch Fire, Scorpion, Mr. Robot. Lots of TV shows center around programmers. As with doctor shows however they don't focus on the medicine but the interactions of the people.
- dsfjksdf 9y agoHadn't heard of Halt & Catch Fire and Scorpion, will check them out. Mr Robot seems to reinforce the stereotype of social outcast computer kids, definitely not glamorous. I doubt SV glamorizes the tech world, but I haven't seen it yet. Compare that to the typical doctor or lawyer series, where heroes save lives.
- mcv 9y agoI suspect it's because of a prejudice that there's something anti-social about working with technology. And that prejudice effects both the people working with technology (some of whom embrace that anti-social attitude, when in a different environment they'd do something about it), and people who don't want to go into tech because of that prejudice.