4 ms·
I'm a nerdy upper middle class white guy but I have a different view from some of the engineers, especially female, that I've met (many are aerospace and not so
by tdb7893 9y ago
I'm a nerdy upper middle class white guy but I have a different view from some of the engineers, especially female, that I've met (many are aerospace and not software engineers). Engineering has a tendency to attract a certain type of male and people outside of that group have a much harder time fitting in with software engineers and also can be subject so some more subtly hostile behaviours. I'm not saying the field needs to be have perfect splits of demographics but engineering should be open to everyone who enjoys it and has the aptitude but in the experiences I've heard about it's more open to some people than others.
I guess that's the disagreement I have with people is that it's hard for me to see engineering as open and meritocratic when I've seen situations where it definitely is not (even if those situations are just anecdotes)
- bArray 9y agoI agree the the environments should be open, but in the same way academia is, where putting ideas out there is fine but equally you should be prepared for them to be challenged. "Hostility" shouldn't be meaninglessly applied, but equally bad ideas shouldn't be encouraged. That said, the completely incorrect way of handling this is to bias the outcomes, a.k.a purposely hiring genders (or any group) to meet quotas, balancing pay checks despite job descriptions, etc. That just puts incentives for unhappy people to remain where they are, nobody wins that way.