4 ms·

"Untapped market of engineers" yes it exists. The majority of my female friends with STEM degrees ended up as high school teachers. I had several older people s

by kat 8y ago

"Untapped market of engineers" yes it exists. The majority of my female friends with STEM degrees ended up as high school teachers. I had several older people suggest to me that teaching should be my preferred career choice because it was more flexible than a programming job (wtf...) "every tech company would be taking advantage of it" - nope, no one is. I don't know why but my guess is its hard to admit you're doing hiring wrong, hard to hire people who think differently than you, etc.

jhfhhhf 8y ago
Maybe being a high school teacher is simply more pleasant than working in tech to some people? I don't think your example shows there is an untapped talent pool. Of course, in general, you can make a job more attractive (raise salaries, roll out red carpets, install slides...), and you will attract more people. That doesn't prove those people were an untapped talent pool. Presumably there is a price that would make a high school teacher consider working in tech again. That doesn't imply companies should be willing to pay that price.
- beat 8y ago
  So why are the "some people" more often female than male? I keep seeing all these explanations that are just begging the question.
  - jhfhhhf 8y ago
    In my opinion, because women have less need for high salaries, and also because women might more often be socially able to become teachers, compared to men. Also, women and men are different and have different preferences on average. There is also the aspect that teaching is much less technically demanding. What makes you so sure it is discrimination? If it was discrimination, why don't these women just found all-women companies?
totony 8y ago
To note, there are more women than men in high school teaching positions, so what you're seeing might not be that STEM has a bias against women but that teaching has a bias for women (or any other out of a very big set of possible conclusions) see: https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=EAG_PERS_SHARE_AGE https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=EAG_PERS_SHARE...
hamandcheese 8y ago
Why did they choose being a high school teacher? Are there specifics about hiring processes in tech that bias against or scare away female candidates?

by kat 8y ago

jhfhhhf 8y ago

Maybe being a high school teacher is simply more pleasant than working in tech to some people? I don't think your example shows there is an untapped talent pool. Of course, in general, you can make a job more attractive (raise salaries, roll out red carpets, install slides...), and you will attract more people. That doesn't prove those people were an untapped talent pool. Presumably there is a price that would make a high school teacher consider working in tech again. That doesn't imply companies should be willing to pay that price.

beat 8y ago
So why are the "some people" more often female than male? I keep seeing all these explanations that are just begging the question.
- jhfhhhf 8y ago
  In my opinion, because women have less need for high salaries, and also because women might more often be socially able to become teachers, compared to men. Also, women and men are different and have different preferences on average. There is also the aspect that teaching is much less technically demanding. What makes you so sure it is discrimination? If it was discrimination, why don't these women just found all-women companies?

totony 8y ago

To note, there are more women than men in high school teaching positions, so what you're seeing might not be that STEM has a bias against women but that teaching has a bias for women (or any other out of a very big set of possible conclusions) see: https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=EAG_PERS_SHARE_AGE https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=EAG_PERS_SHARE...

hamandcheese 8y ago

Why did they choose being a high school teacher? Are there specifics about hiring processes in tech that bias against or scare away female candidates?