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Don't forget the reverse sexism always at play on HN. Oh meh a new website someone wrote. Nothing new... Holy cow it says it was written by a woman upvote! Wel

• iwwr 16y ago
  Technical communities in general are more devoid of women. There's nothing wrong in a little upvote encouragement.
  • axod 16y ago
    It's condescending, belittling and sarcastic IMHO. Judge things on their merit. Seeing posts upvoted simply because they're made by females is sad.
    • Stormbringer 16y ago
      Automatically attributing all the high quality posts to men is enormously much worse. And it will only perpetuate the problem or even make it worse, because it makes it harder for women to get the recognition they deserve. You might say that the recognition they deserve is equal recognition. I would agree. IFF they were currently getting equal recognition, then everything you say about giving them extra recognition would be true. It would be condescending, belittling and sarcastic. The problem is though that they don't get equal recognition. So until the day they do, you can put that "condescending, belittling and sarcastic" attitude right back where you found it.
      • axod 16y ago
        If you're going into 'tech' to get recognition, you're probably going into it for the wrong reasons. This debate reminds me of the failed 'Women only shortlists" debacle in the UK under the Labour government, where they put forward only Women candidates, in order to get more women MPs. Regardless of their merit to actually do the job.
        • Stormbringer 16y ago
          From Wikipedia: In his essay "Homesteading the Noosphere", noted computer programmer Eric S. Raymond opined that open-source software developers have created "a 'gift culture' in which participants compete for prestige by giving time, energy, and creativity away". Members of the Linux community often speak of their community as a gift economy. Hence in my opinion; recognition is the currency of hackers, and thus while it is the unfortunate case that in many areas women are under-recognised... it is particularly egregious when this happens in the technology arena.
          • pohl 16y ago
            I'd say if you're going into it for any currency (actual or ersatz) you're going in for the wrong reasons.
            • derefr 16y ago
              Anything can be a currency. You can trade in self-fulfillment futures.
              • pohl 16y ago
                Sweet. I've accumulated several decades of self-fulfillment. What exchange rate are you offering?
• idlewords 16y ago
  There's no reverse sexism at play here, just good old fashioned regular sexism, where a commenter assumed that the author of something insightful was a man. This attitude (and your response to it) goes a long way to explaining why computerland is such a sausage party.
  • rimantas 16y ago
    > There's no reverse sexism at play here, just good old > fashioned regular sexism, where a commenter assumed that > the author of something insightful was a man. No sexism there. Given the number of men in science vs. that of women it is pretty safe bet probability-wise. > This attitude (and your response to it) goes a long way > to explaining why computerland is such a sausage party. It explains absolutely nothing. Girls not going to some field because of the attitude of people they don't know because they are not in the field yet? And "sausage party" deserves a flag, imho.
    • pvg 16y ago
      And "sausage party" deserves a flag, imho. I honestly cannot wait for the many articles explaining how to make one in pure CSS.
    • steveklabnik 16y ago
      > And "sausage party" deserves a flag, imho. Why would you say that? We're all adults here.
  • axod 16y ago
    If you were reading a relationship advice column, you'd assume it was written by a woman. That's not sexism. And do we need more men in 'relationship advice'? Only if they want to be there. I really wish this ridiculous and unhelpful "There's no women in tech because of evil men" meme would die.
    • crux_ 16y ago
      > If you were reading a relationship advice column, you'd assume it was written by a woman. That's not sexism. Um... in what way is it not a sexist assumption? > I really wish this ridiculous and unhelpful "There's no women in tech because of evil men" meme would die. Evil? No. Sexist: a thousand times yes. The culture of technology, and especially startups, is quite frankly vile in this regard. Is it the sole cause of "no women in tech"? Almost certainly not -- but I find the rampant sexism plenty objectionable in its own right, regardless of (speculated) effects on diversity.