3 ms·

It should be noted that this community here was among the worst in this regard. This isn’t about measuring the exact contribution she may or may not have made

It should be noted that this community here was among the worst in this regard. This isn’t about measuring the exact contribution she may or may not have made to the project. It’s that there are limitless stories of „meet the man behind <x>“ where that question just never crosses anyone’s mind. See "The Man Behind Windows PowerShell" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15250349 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15250349 Yet for her, the discussion was easily dominated by attempts to tear her down, a few defenders, and entirely transparent attempts to differentiate her case from all the others that avoid the obvious reason.

fzeroracer 8y ago
Absolutely. It's a trend I've noticed on HN for some time now unfortunately. Stories with women tend to generate a lot of hysteria around men not being treated fairly or other nonsense. It's the exact same thing that occurred when there was a program for women to help increase the number of female startup founders and teach them to code [1] or when a manager at Facebook quit over being harassed [2]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19464269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19464269 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18932815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18932815
- Waterluvian 8y ago
  I think it's a fear many have of someone possibly, maybe getting an unfair break. To me it feels a lot like the same reaction I see over the concept of welfare. Can't let anyone past because maybe, possibly, some of them are getting it undeservedly. In my opinion the fear that others get something they didn't earn or didn't deserve is one of the bigger problems we need to combat in society. It's the biggest foe of social systems that could help raise us all up. And it seems to me it might be an underpinning reason to why some are so afraid to let a woman have some attention that she probably fought her whole professional life for a chance to earn.
  - krapp 8y ago
    There's also the odd trend I've noticed of trying to attribute the gender imbalance and the lack of women in technical and scientific fields to genetic factors, implying (sometimes stating outright) that women are simply incapable of comprehending logic, complex mathematics, keeping attention to detail, etc. Some (or many, judging by the threads here) people seem to assume that a woman in a position of any prestige in such a field must be there due to some feminist agenda giving seats to unqualified women in the name of gender equality, or the leftist press giving women undeserved credit. It's particularly odd because I suspect many of the proponents of these views are too young to remember the 1960s or 1950s, yet their views on women seem regressive even by that standard, and far more vicious.
    - thucydidesofusa 8y ago
      Right, but others are using biological arguments (as well as empirical arguments) to make the case that in a society that's sufficiently gender egalitarian, you wouldn't expect to have gender parity for engineering and computer careers.
    - belorn 8y ago
      People attribute genetics or hormones to difference between men and women when they can't find other reasons, and this comes from all side of the political spectrum. Violence and aggression is attributed to biological aspects of men, emotional instability and lack of "cold logic" in women. Risk taking and shorter life span in men, nurturing behavior in women. It is regressive and the science used in support is spotty at best and more often poorly correlations with a massive dose of cultural bias.
  - thucydidesofusa 8y ago
    Why not put the brain power into devising welfare systems that couldn't be scammed than trying to defeat people who care more about the scamming than the good.

fzeroracer 8y ago

Absolutely. It's a trend I've noticed on HN for some time now unfortunately. Stories with women tend to generate a lot of hysteria around men not being treated fairly or other nonsense. It's the exact same thing that occurred when there was a program for women to help increase the number of female startup founders and teach them to code [1] or when a manager at Facebook quit over being harassed [2]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19464269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19464269 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18932815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18932815

Waterluvian 8y ago
I think it's a fear many have of someone possibly, maybe getting an unfair break. To me it feels a lot like the same reaction I see over the concept of welfare. Can't let anyone past because maybe, possibly, some of them are getting it undeservedly. In my opinion the fear that others get something they didn't earn or didn't deserve is one of the bigger problems we need to combat in society. It's the biggest foe of social systems that could help raise us all up. And it seems to me it might be an underpinning reason to why some are so afraid to let a woman have some attention that she probably fought her whole professional life for a chance to earn.
- krapp 8y ago
  There's also the odd trend I've noticed of trying to attribute the gender imbalance and the lack of women in technical and scientific fields to genetic factors, implying (sometimes stating outright) that women are simply incapable of comprehending logic, complex mathematics, keeping attention to detail, etc. Some (or many, judging by the threads here) people seem to assume that a woman in a position of any prestige in such a field must be there due to some feminist agenda giving seats to unqualified women in the name of gender equality, or the leftist press giving women undeserved credit. It's particularly odd because I suspect many of the proponents of these views are too young to remember the 1960s or 1950s, yet their views on women seem regressive even by that standard, and far more vicious.
  - thucydidesofusa 8y ago
    Right, but others are using biological arguments (as well as empirical arguments) to make the case that in a society that's sufficiently gender egalitarian, you wouldn't expect to have gender parity for engineering and computer careers.
  - belorn 8y ago
    People attribute genetics or hormones to difference between men and women when they can't find other reasons, and this comes from all side of the political spectrum. Violence and aggression is attributed to biological aspects of men, emotional instability and lack of "cold logic" in women. Risk taking and shorter life span in men, nurturing behavior in women. It is regressive and the science used in support is spotty at best and more often poorly correlations with a massive dose of cultural bias.
- thucydidesofusa 8y ago
  Why not put the brain power into devising welfare systems that couldn't be scammed than trying to defeat people who care more about the scamming than the good.