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Given that sexism is a problem, that seems like the more obvious cause of the gender gap in software engineering leadership. Perhaps something like this does h

Given that sexism is a problem, that seems like the more obvious cause of the gender gap in software engineering leadership. Perhaps something like this does have an effect on some level, although I think the effects are small and variance in the population is always larger then people think. Even so, it shouldn't be used as an excuse to simply accept status quo and avoid taking any steps to try and close this gender gap.

chongli 9y ago
Given that sexism is a problem, that seems like the more obvious cause of the gender gap in software engineering leadership. Sexism was a big problem for women who entered fields such as law and medicine back in the 60s and 70s. In spite of all that, women are now extremely well-represented in those fields. You're making the claim that sexism is the primary reason why women are underrepresented in engineering. That's not enough. You should be able to show how sexism in engineering is fundamentally different from the sexism women faced in those other fields in order to explain the difference in representation.
- cmiles74 9y ago
  I don't think there's any difference in the way people face sexism in the software engineering field. I expect it's much the same sexism that people experienced in law and medicine; I'm not sure why there would be any material difference. The field is dominated by one gender and they do their best to prevent entrance by the other gender. It's played out this same way, as you point out, so many times in the past. On the contrary, I'd ask you what makes software engineering so special that it wouldn't fall into this historic pitfall.
  - chongli 9y ago
    Re-read what I wrote. To clarify further: I was talking about engineering in general, not software engineering in particular. Women entered the fields of law, medicine, and engineering all at the same time in the 60s and 70s. They faced sexism in all three. They have since come to be extremely well represented in law and medicine and even dominate some sub-fields, such as pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology. At the same time, women's representation in engineering has barely budged from 3% to 13% since 1970. [0] So what is the difference? [0] https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-24.pdf https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-24.pdf
    - cmiles74 9y ago
      Looking at the facts, it seems clear that engineers are far more sexist than doctors or lawyers. Where other professionals have decided that they don't need to pretend superiority over an entire gender, engineers have chosen to embrace last century's discarded psuedo-science. Sad.

chongli 9y ago

Given that sexism is a problem, that seems like the more obvious cause of the gender gap in software engineering leadership. Sexism was a big problem for women who entered fields such as law and medicine back in the 60s and 70s. In spite of all that, women are now extremely well-represented in those fields. You're making the claim that sexism is the primary reason why women are underrepresented in engineering. That's not enough. You should be able to show how sexism in engineering is fundamentally different from the sexism women faced in those other fields in order to explain the difference in representation.

cmiles74 9y ago
I don't think there's any difference in the way people face sexism in the software engineering field. I expect it's much the same sexism that people experienced in law and medicine; I'm not sure why there would be any material difference. The field is dominated by one gender and they do their best to prevent entrance by the other gender. It's played out this same way, as you point out, so many times in the past. On the contrary, I'd ask you what makes software engineering so special that it wouldn't fall into this historic pitfall.
- chongli 9y ago
  Re-read what I wrote. To clarify further: I was talking about engineering in general, not software engineering in particular. Women entered the fields of law, medicine, and engineering all at the same time in the 60s and 70s. They faced sexism in all three. They have since come to be extremely well represented in law and medicine and even dominate some sub-fields, such as pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology. At the same time, women's representation in engineering has barely budged from 3% to 13% since 1970. [0] So what is the difference? [0] https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-24.pdf https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-24.pdf
  - cmiles74 9y ago
    Looking at the facts, it seems clear that engineers are far more sexist than doctors or lawyers. Where other professionals have decided that they don't need to pretend superiority over an entire gender, engineers have chosen to embrace last century's discarded psuedo-science. Sad.