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This was already discussed on Hacker News, but there needs to be an accounting for the fact that women's participation in the tech industry peaked in the 1980s

This was already discussed on Hacker News, but there needs to be an accounting for the fact that women's participation in the tech industry peaked in the 1980s and has declined since: http://www.smashcompany.com/business/why-are-women-being-pushed-away-from-the-tech-industry http://www.smashcompany.com/business/why-are-women-being-pus...

tyingq 9y ago
The data in that article is compellingly. I wish I truly understood the issues. I've had several female understudies that seemed destined for rising to the top. None of them, except one, have. They've come close, but backed out here and there. For reasons that seem unrelated to male influence. That doesn't necessarily point to an issue, mind you. I backed out myself for personal issues. Could have had big roles, but declined them for non work related considerations. I'd like to think their reasons were similar, but it's hard to tell.
- stcredzero 9y ago
  I've had several female understudies that seemed destined for rising to the top. None of them, except one, have. They've come close, but backed out here and there. For reasons that seem unrelated to male influence. I'm very skeptical of some cries of conspiratorial male oppression. (Though not all.) However, I do think there is something in the structure of our society which acts as a powerful disincentive to women at a certain point. I did an architectural walk-through awhile back, and spoke to the CEO/architect of the small company that designed that building. My take-away from her was that, in order to "have it all," she basically had to build a smaller company that dealt more on a personal level with clients with doing smaller projects, as opposed to a larger company which could take on much higher-profile projects. I think there is a significant element of the communal which is vital to human well-being and high functioning, and that this missing element has something to do with what seems like unreasonable demands placed on working mothers and the frequent decision taken to reduce career emphasis to raise children.
stcredzero 9y ago
there needs to be an accounting for the fact that women's participation in the tech industry peaked in the 1980s and has declined since The data in the article is by percentage. By numbers, I'd expect women's participation to be up.
SamReidHughes 9y ago
Here's your accounting. That's the proportion of bachelor's degrees. The total number of women getting degrees kept increasing through the 80's and 90's, but boys got way more interested after the rise of home computing.

tyingq 9y ago

The data in that article is compellingly. I wish I truly understood the issues. I've had several female understudies that seemed destined for rising to the top. None of them, except one, have. They've come close, but backed out here and there. For reasons that seem unrelated to male influence. That doesn't necessarily point to an issue, mind you. I backed out myself for personal issues. Could have had big roles, but declined them for non work related considerations. I'd like to think their reasons were similar, but it's hard to tell.

stcredzero 9y ago
I've had several female understudies that seemed destined for rising to the top. None of them, except one, have. They've come close, but backed out here and there. For reasons that seem unrelated to male influence. I'm very skeptical of some cries of conspiratorial male oppression. (Though not all.) However, I do think there is something in the structure of our society which acts as a powerful disincentive to women at a certain point. I did an architectural walk-through awhile back, and spoke to the CEO/architect of the small company that designed that building. My take-away from her was that, in order to "have it all," she basically had to build a smaller company that dealt more on a personal level with clients with doing smaller projects, as opposed to a larger company which could take on much higher-profile projects. I think there is a significant element of the communal which is vital to human well-being and high functioning, and that this missing element has something to do with what seems like unreasonable demands placed on working mothers and the frequent decision taken to reduce career emphasis to raise children.

stcredzero 9y ago

there needs to be an accounting for the fact that women's participation in the tech industry peaked in the 1980s and has declined since The data in the article is by percentage. By numbers, I'd expect women's participation to be up.

SamReidHughes 9y ago

Here's your accounting. That's the proportion of bachelor's degrees. The total number of women getting degrees kept increasing through the 80's and 90's, but boys got way more interested after the rise of home computing.