3 ms·
I'm (somewhat) sorry to pick on you for this, but this is something I've always found annoying/fascinating. I'm a fiction writer and a technical writer, and in
by chipotle_coyote 8y ago
I'm (somewhat) sorry to pick on you for this, but this is something I've always found annoying/fascinating. I'm a fiction writer and a technical writer, and in both cases, I'm routinely advised that it's good to turn subject matter experts -- SMEs -- not only for things that I know I don't know, but for things that I think I know but might not have a complete understanding of. If we want to know what it's really like to be a fighter pilot, we should talk to fighter pilots, or at the very least read first-hand reports from them. We generally accept that this is true for nearly all fields of interest, not exclusively professions: if you want to learn about concentration camps or life in a cult, for instance, talk to or read first-hand reports from those who have.
Yet, somehow, when it's suggested that the SMEs on what it's like to be a woman software engineer would be women software engineers, or to be a woman founder in tech would be women founders in tech, suddenly "hey, I'm a man who's been in tech for a long time and I've never seen it" is good enough.
To me, it seems intuitively obvious that they may have insight into the challenges they face that you and I don't, and when we hear multiple women founders in tech talk about the sexism they faced that you and I by definition would not, we should consider the possibility that they know what they're talking about.
Crazy, I know.
- superplussed 8y agoWell said.
- troupe 8y agoThe article specifically said that she wasn't comfortable because people didn't look like her. The person you are replying to said they were in the same position where they looked around and no one looked like them.
- chipotle_coyote 8y agoI can look around my office and see a lot of people who "don't look like me"; I'm older than most of them and many of them are Indian or Korean. That doesn't mean my experience is effectively equivalent to hers because of that similarity.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ScottBurson 8y agoIt says that she didn't feel welcome and included. It's true that having more Muslim women in the room might have helped her feel that way, but it's also true that if the men had made her feel more welcome, her being different might not have mattered so much. Indeed, even if there were more Muslim women, if the men were still abrasive to them, the two groups would simply have drifted apart ... which seems to be what has happened. In the GP's case, even though he was the only white male in the room, evidently the others didn't make him feel unwelcome. That's nice, but it doesn't prove that such things never happen. I find the place I work to be very inclusive too, as far as I can tell being a white male, but I don't doubt that some places are worse, and a few are much worse.
- troupe 8y agoIf people were being abrasive to her then it would have been worth mentioning in the article. Instead she said that she felt like some people were being aggressive if they didn't seem interested in helping her.
- tytytytytytytyt 8y ago> we should consider the possibility that they know what they're talking about. Know about their own experiences, yes. They they know how frequently it happens to every other person in the industry, not so much. The person you replied to said it happens, but maybe not to the extent that they say it does. > I'm a fiction writer and a technical writer, and in both cases, I'm routinely advised that it's good to turn subject matter experts -- SMEs -- not only for things that I know I don't know, but for things that I think I know but might not have a complete understanding of. This sounds like something from Socrates or Plato, if my very hazy memory of Philosophy 101 serves.