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Do you have any theory that could explain why there are so few women here?

by xchip 9y ago

DoreenMichele 9y ago
I was not here from the start, so I don't really know what formed the culture here. But very off the cuff: As best I can tell, it started as a bunch of men in a male dominated culture at a time when it was mostly men posting online. It is a public forum. Women online seem to gravitate to more walled garden type environments. Women online often post anonymously. This forum has a professional emphasis and even men who post under a handle instead of under their name are often pretty open about their actual name. A lot of men at the top of the leaderboard are people whom you can find articles about or a page on their employer's site or something like that. So there is third party corroboration of their identity. This is something women seem to be less likely to have in the first place, and it was worse some years ago when this forum was getting formed. Each of those norms are norms women have trouble meeting. The more individual things you add that are hard for women to meet, the more excluded women are. It's a little like saying "You don't have to be male, you just have to be over 6 feet tall, able to bench press X amount of weight and have a beard." Even if they decide that having a beard is some arbitrary sexist requirement that they are willing to drop, you still will find very few women who can meet the standards required to participate. (Disclaimer: I have barely slept and posting here at all is probably a bad idea on so little sleep.)
- xchip 9y ago
  If I understood correctly, 1) it's a male dominated culture 2) people somehow communicate they are men 3) women prefer posting anonymously Interesting... and how about the news that get posted, do you think they read them but they just don't comment?
  - DoreenMichele 9y ago
    It seems to have mostly been a bunch of programmers from the start and it was just mostly men. That has implications for group norms. Groups that are entirely male do things differently than mixed gender groups. This is typical of, for example, military culture and fraternities. It has been studied and documented.
    - xchip 9y ago
      That is interesting! Just so I can learn, what would you say it is the main norm that put women off?

Do you have any theory that could explain why there are so few women here?

by xchip 9y ago

Do you have any theory that could explain why there are so few women here?

I was not here from the start, so I don't really know what formed the culture here. But very off the cuff: As best I can tell, it started as a bunch of men in a male dominated culture at a time when it was mostly men posting online. It is a public forum. Women online seem to gravitate to more walled garden type environments. Women online often post anonymously. This forum has a professional emphasis and even men who post under a handle instead of under their name are often pretty open about their actual name. A lot of men at the top of the leaderboard are people whom you can find articles about or a page on their employer's site or something like that. So there is third party corroboration of their identity. This is something women seem to be less likely to have in the first place, and it was worse some years ago when this forum was getting formed. Each of those norms are norms women have trouble meeting. The more individual things you add that are hard for women to meet, the more excluded women are. It's a little like saying "You don't have to be male, you just have to be over 6 feet tall, able to bench press X amount of weight and have a beard." Even if they decide that having a beard is some arbitrary sexist requirement that they are willing to drop, you still will find very few women who can meet the standards required to participate. (Disclaimer: I have barely slept and posting here at all is probably a bad idea on so little sleep.)

xchip 9y ago
If I understood correctly, 1) it's a male dominated culture 2) people somehow communicate they are men 3) women prefer posting anonymously Interesting... and how about the news that get posted, do you think they read them but they just don't comment?
- DoreenMichele 9y ago
  It seems to have mostly been a bunch of programmers from the start and it was just mostly men. That has implications for group norms. Groups that are entirely male do things differently than mixed gender groups. This is typical of, for example, military culture and fraternities. It has been studied and documented.
  - xchip 9y ago
    That is interesting! Just so I can learn, what would you say it is the main norm that put women off?