5 ms·

Obviously NYT was having a slow day. However, what I'd like to point out is the discrimination: Do you think the same piece would be created if the entrepreneur

by Jun8 16y ago

Obviously NYT was having a slow day. However, what I'd like to point out is the discrimination: Do you think the same piece would be created if the entrepreneur in question was an average looking guy? People always talk about how women get discriminated against in CS, EE and the like (which is true to a point) while refusing to see the advantages of being a woman in these areas. When we were interviewing people for positions, I always sensed somewhat more enthusiasm before interviewing a woman in my colleagues, even if it's a phone interview. You may find these comments Summers-like, but let me know if you have not experienced similar things in your work environment.

limedaring 16y ago
I started to agree with you (my first initial reaction while reading this article was "Huh, typical 'I don't do what's easy and became an entrepreneur and now I'm semi successful' story"). But what does make it different that is that women don't usually go this route, whereas it might seem more normal for a man. So it's worth heralding someone who is technically a minority for doing something difficult. I don't see it as discrimination, rather, making it an example for more women to follow. Of course, I am a woman, so my viewpoint may be skewed.
- megablast 16y ago
  She did not do it alone, she did it with her partner, now her husband. She may not have done it if on her own, unfortunately.
  - pgbovine 16y ago
    She may not have done it if on her own, unfortunately. care to elaborate on this conjecture?
- Jun8 16y ago
  Completely agree with you, need more role models in that area. My point was that, the fact that her appearance was predominantly pushed on her personal web page, may send the wrong message, i.e. you have to be intelligent and beautiful/sexy or something to be featured in NYT, not that there's anything wrong with a beautiful entrepreneur woman, but that shouldn't be the first thing that is pushed on you. There are awesome hacker role models, such as Leah Buechley, that can be covered. HN recently had an excellent discussion on exactly this topic: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1430281 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1430281
  - limedaring 16y ago
    Ugh, yes. I'll admit that since I've quit my day job and started building my own company, I've also started to really focus on my diet and my appearance, since there is a chance that people might pay more attention to me if I fit the standard of beauty. I love getting healthier as well, but it does kind of suck to have that message pushed on my brain.
thesethings 16y ago
Disagree. The NYT site didn't make it easy, but I just browsed about 12 months worth of this column(?) "Preoccupations." Female and male profiles were about 50-50, and everybody else seemed pretty average looking. Less than half the time is it a profile of an individual, the rest of the time it's a profile of a "trend" (This Hashrocket pair programming article that was on HN a while back, is from this same NYT column: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/jobs/20pre.html? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/jobs/20pre.html?) All the rest of the profiles were equally as interesting-but-not-mind-blowing. (Though I'm less critical than you about the slow-news-day part. That's "slice of life" journalism. It's always like that, heh. In that regard, every day is a slow news day. ) I suggest a study: One where when a post's author/subject is a female, we count how frequently her appearance is brought up when it's not otherwise the topic of the post, versus when it's an average looking guy posting about how he organizes his email folders/ moved to git/ almost took VC. Does that stuff get called a slow news day?
- InfinityX0 16y ago
  If female and male profiles are 50-50, then the website is slanted towards women. Male take up a huge portion of the technology space.
  - thesethings 16y ago
    The NYT Preoccupations column isn't about technology. It's about trends in the workplace/ jobs.
- Jun8 16y ago
  An interesting addition to your proposed study would be this: in addition to other people, how often does the person covered push their appearance. This was my main objection to this lady, when you go to her web page, her modeling and vanity shots are predominant, e.g. this is how she chooses to represent herself. She may be thinking that this would be advantageous in a male dominated profession.
  - thesethings 16y ago

by Jun8 16y ago

limedaring 16y ago

I started to agree with you (my first initial reaction while reading this article was "Huh, typical 'I don't do what's easy and became an entrepreneur and now I'm semi successful' story"). But what does make it different that is that women don't usually go this route, whereas it might seem more normal for a man. So it's worth heralding someone who is technically a minority for doing something difficult. I don't see it as discrimination, rather, making it an example for more women to follow. Of course, I am a woman, so my viewpoint may be skewed.

megablast 16y ago
She did not do it alone, she did it with her partner, now her husband. She may not have done it if on her own, unfortunately.
- pgbovine 16y ago
  She may not have done it if on her own, unfortunately. care to elaborate on this conjecture?
Jun8 16y ago
Completely agree with you, need more role models in that area. My point was that, the fact that her appearance was predominantly pushed on her personal web page, may send the wrong message, i.e. you have to be intelligent and beautiful/sexy or something to be featured in NYT, not that there's anything wrong with a beautiful entrepreneur woman, but that shouldn't be the first thing that is pushed on you. There are awesome hacker role models, such as Leah Buechley, that can be covered. HN recently had an excellent discussion on exactly this topic: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1430281 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1430281
- limedaring 16y ago
  Ugh, yes. I'll admit that since I've quit my day job and started building my own company, I've also started to really focus on my diet and my appearance, since there is a chance that people might pay more attention to me if I fit the standard of beauty. I love getting healthier as well, but it does kind of suck to have that message pushed on my brain.

thesethings 16y ago

Disagree. The NYT site didn't make it easy, but I just browsed about 12 months worth of this column(?) "Preoccupations." Female and male profiles were about 50-50, and everybody else seemed pretty average looking. Less than half the time is it a profile of an individual, the rest of the time it's a profile of a "trend" (This Hashrocket pair programming article that was on HN a while back, is from this same NYT column: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/jobs/20pre.html? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/jobs/20pre.html?) All the rest of the profiles were equally as interesting-but-not-mind-blowing. (Though I'm less critical than you about the slow-news-day part. That's "slice of life" journalism. It's always like that, heh. In that regard, every day is a slow news day. ) I suggest a study: One where when a post's author/subject is a female, we count how frequently her appearance is brought up when it's not otherwise the topic of the post, versus when it's an average looking guy posting about how he organizes his email folders/ moved to git/ almost took VC. Does that stuff get called a slow news day?

InfinityX0 16y ago
If female and male profiles are 50-50, then the website is slanted towards women. Male take up a huge portion of the technology space.
- thesethings 16y ago
  The NYT Preoccupations column isn't about technology. It's about trends in the workplace/ jobs.
Jun8 16y ago
An interesting addition to your proposed study would be this: in addition to other people, how often does the person covered push their appearance. This was my main objection to this lady, when you go to her web page, her modeling and vanity shots are predominant, e.g. this is how she chooses to represent herself. She may be thinking that this would be advantageous in a male dominated profession.
- thesethings 16y ago