4 ms·

Today on HN I've learnt about KaTeX, a math typesetting system for the web[1]. As I looked into it, I was intrigued by the names of the two authors, which sugg

Today on HN I've learnt about KaTeX, a math typesetting system for the web[1]. As I looked into it, I was intrigued by the names of the two authors, which suggested they are females. That looked odd to me, as I thought typically this kind of project is made by men. The last time I had this kind of surprise was with Audrey Tang, the developer of Pugs, an early Perl 6 implementation. Turned out she was not born female. So, just by curiosity, I looked into the authors of this KaTeX thing. To my amusement, I guessed well : at least one of them is a trans[2]. There are certain kinds of IT projects in which women are formidably rare. I can't quite put my finger on what kind of projects I'm talking about, but let's just say it's a case of "I know it when I see it". At some point we should consider admitting that there is something, I don't know what, that draws men towards this kind of projects much more than for women. And that this thing, whatever it is, may be a reason for the observed gender disparities in the tech industry. 1. https://github.com/Khan/KaTeX https://github.com/Khan/KaTeX 2. https://sophiebits.com/2017/08/26/hi-im-trans.html https://sophiebits.com/2017/08/26/hi-im-trans.html

UnpossibleJim 9y ago
It might help if it were not frowned upon to admit that women and men are different, and that isn't a bad thing. Male nurses are still a rarity, and that's ok (though, all nurses, regardless of sex, should get paid more). Different doesn't mean better or worse, just different. Is a frog better than a toad? Well, what situation are you asking about? Are women better than men? Well, what situation are we talking about? (And, yes, I just compared men and women to frogs and toads, because no hidden reason whatsoever...)
- tnzn 9y ago
  It would help to stop with the strawmen. Feminists don't say men and women are not different at all, they say that the gender roles are based on cultural factors more than biological ones.
  - UnpossibleJim 9y ago
    https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hope-relationships/201402/brain-differences-between-genders https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hope-relationships/2014... https://www.simplypsychology.org/gender-biology.html https://www.simplypsychology.org/gender-biology.html
- geebee 9y ago
  Registered nurses, at the median in SF, earn about $133k a year (check US News "Best Jobs" for a roundup of regional BLS data). I'm absolutely OK with nurses earning good salaries but I do think people are often surprised to hear how much nurses actually do earn.
  - UnpossibleJim 9y ago
    That is significantly better than I thought =) I'll dial back my disappointment, a bit.
- sleepingpanda 9y ago
  Male nurses still make more on average than female nurses: https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2015/03/124266/male-registered-nurses-make-thousands-more-salary-female-counterparts https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2015/03/124266/male-registered-nur...
Klockan 9y ago
I have noticed this as well, in competitive gaming among female prize money earners 2 of the top 3 are trans (Scarlett and Ricki Ortiz). https://www.esportsearnings.com/players/female_players https://www.esportsearnings.com/players/female_players I would expect that trans women are actually more targeted and discriminated against than normal women so this result is strange. Here is the list including both genders as a comparison for the interested, only Scarlett is on that list and she is on position 316 which seems more reasonable given how rare trans persons are: https://www.esportsearnings.com/players/highest-overall https://www.esportsearnings.com/players/highest-overall
rektide 9y ago
You are a grade A asshole. You ignore all the potential for discrimination in selection, & promote this vicious nasty bitter competitive view reinforcing stereotypes you want to believe in. This is disgusting and disgraceful, and you are the scourge that keeps the score so uneven. Shame shame shame on disgusting you.
- sctb 9y ago
  Personal attacks like this are never OK on Hacker News no matter what you're replying to. Please don't do this again. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
BenoitP 9y ago
Sophie Wilson[1], designer of the ARM instruction set -among other things- comes to mind too. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Wilson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Wilson
- deepnotderp 9y ago
  I'm not a fan of this argument, but I think his point is that there are fewer overall. For example, individuals with CAH exhibit far greater affinity for male-type toys (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166361/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166361/).

UnpossibleJim 9y ago

It might help if it were not frowned upon to admit that women and men are different, and that isn't a bad thing. Male nurses are still a rarity, and that's ok (though, all nurses, regardless of sex, should get paid more). Different doesn't mean better or worse, just different. Is a frog better than a toad? Well, what situation are you asking about? Are women better than men? Well, what situation are we talking about? (And, yes, I just compared men and women to frogs and toads, because no hidden reason whatsoever...)

tnzn 9y ago
It would help to stop with the strawmen. Feminists don't say men and women are not different at all, they say that the gender roles are based on cultural factors more than biological ones.
- UnpossibleJim 9y ago
  https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hope-relationships/201402/brain-differences-between-genders https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hope-relationships/2014... https://www.simplypsychology.org/gender-biology.html https://www.simplypsychology.org/gender-biology.html
geebee 9y ago
Registered nurses, at the median in SF, earn about $133k a year (check US News "Best Jobs" for a roundup of regional BLS data). I'm absolutely OK with nurses earning good salaries but I do think people are often surprised to hear how much nurses actually do earn.
- UnpossibleJim 9y ago
  That is significantly better than I thought =) I'll dial back my disappointment, a bit.
sleepingpanda 9y ago
Male nurses still make more on average than female nurses: https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2015/03/124266/male-registered-nurses-make-thousands-more-salary-female-counterparts https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2015/03/124266/male-registered-nur...

Klockan 9y ago

I have noticed this as well, in competitive gaming among female prize money earners 2 of the top 3 are trans (Scarlett and Ricki Ortiz). https://www.esportsearnings.com/players/female_players https://www.esportsearnings.com/players/female_players I would expect that trans women are actually more targeted and discriminated against than normal women so this result is strange. Here is the list including both genders as a comparison for the interested, only Scarlett is on that list and she is on position 316 which seems more reasonable given how rare trans persons are: https://www.esportsearnings.com/players/highest-overall https://www.esportsearnings.com/players/highest-overall

rektide 9y ago

You are a grade A asshole. You ignore all the potential for discrimination in selection, & promote this vicious nasty bitter competitive view reinforcing stereotypes you want to believe in. This is disgusting and disgraceful, and you are the scourge that keeps the score so uneven. Shame shame shame on disgusting you.

sctb 9y ago
Personal attacks like this are never OK on Hacker News no matter what you're replying to. Please don't do this again. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

BenoitP 9y ago

Sophie Wilson[1], designer of the ARM instruction set -among other things- comes to mind too. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Wilson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Wilson

deepnotderp 9y ago
I'm not a fan of this argument, but I think his point is that there are fewer overall. For example, individuals with CAH exhibit far greater affinity for male-type toys (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166361/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166361/).