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> But it strongly suggests that discrimination isn't the primary driver of female under-representation in the industry. I don't see that it does. It's entirely

> But it strongly suggests that discrimination isn't the primary driver of female under-representation in the industry. I don't see that it does. It's entirely possible that in less egalitarian countries, women are just less likely to leave tech on account of discrimination or harassment. I can think of several reasons why this might be the case: - Women in poorer countries might be more likely to endure mistreatment for financial reasons. - Women there might just be more accustomed to mistreatment. - Tech might be less hostile to women relative to other fields in those countries. Eg. in Western countries, it's "normal" for women to become teachers, but somewhat less normal for women to become programmers. In more misogynistic countries, it's considered abnormal for women to be teachers or programmers, so there would be less to differentiate the options.

dcolkitt 7y ago
Maybe. It's possible. But it's not a finding in isolation. Another recent finding is that gender equal societies tend to have larger personality differences between men and women. I.e. women in Sweden tend to have much more different personalities and preferences than men in Sweden. Whereas in Saudi Arabia the two genders tend to be more similar. Overall the general theme of these findings is that gender parity is not a good proxy for gender equality. Equality is a very important goal that we should strive for. But the reality is that increasing equality may paradoxically result in larger divergences among the genders in terms of behavior, life trajectories and modes of expression. In my opinion if there is a tension between equality and parity, than gender equality is a much more important goal. And that's what we should be measuring, not parity metrics like representation percentages. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/08/gender-personality-big-five-psychology/568087/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/08/gender-pe...

dcolkitt 7y ago

Maybe. It's possible. But it's not a finding in isolation. Another recent finding is that gender equal societies tend to have larger personality differences between men and women. I.e. women in Sweden tend to have much more different personalities and preferences than men in Sweden. Whereas in Saudi Arabia the two genders tend to be more similar. Overall the general theme of these findings is that gender parity is not a good proxy for gender equality. Equality is a very important goal that we should strive for. But the reality is that increasing equality may paradoxically result in larger divergences among the genders in terms of behavior, life trajectories and modes of expression. In my opinion if there is a tension between equality and parity, than gender equality is a much more important goal. And that's what we should be measuring, not parity metrics like representation percentages. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/08/gender-personality-big-five-psychology/568087/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/08/gender-pe...