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If you took offence to the characterisation of the IT community as generally self-absorbed and sexist, you really need to look around. How many women do you wor
by bermanoid 15y ago
If you took offence to the characterisation of the IT community as generally self-absorbed and sexist, you really need to look around. How many women do you work with?
The fact that there are few women in tech does not necessarily mean that IT is self-absorbed and sexist.
Do you look at the nursing community and assume that it is self-absorbed and misandrist simply because there are not many men in it?
Then again, personally I work at an office that is a 50/50 male/female split, so perhaps I'm not the best one to comment on these matters, I don't know what it's like at a "real" tech shop...
- gordonguthrie 15y agoMy girlfriend is a health visitor and a nurse with 30 years experience. Let me give you a quote from her, solicited over breakfast: "Men, like shit, rise to the top". The NHS is largely a female institution - the managers are overwhelmingly men. I worked in Direct/Call Centre banking. The overwhelming majority of the staff were women, the senior staff were overwhelmingly men.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- cousin_it 15y agohttp://www.nhsconfed.org/Publications/Documents/Management%20in%20the%20NHS.pdf http://www.nhsconfed.org/Publications/Documents/Management%2... > 59 per cent of managers and senior manages are female and three quarters of entrants onto the NHS Management Training Scheme over the past five years have been women.
- gordonguthrie 15y agoGood, I hope things are getting better. My other half works for Lothian NHS Trust - their board is 17-8 men to women (for a majority female workforce): http://www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk/OurOrganisation/BoardCommittees/LothianNHSBoard/BoardMembers/Pages/default.aspx http://www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk/OurOrganisation/BoardCommi...
- cousin_it 15y agoDo you have an updated answer to bermanoid's question about the nursing community?
- gordonguthrie 15y agoMen are over-represented in the management of nursing in relation to their proportion of the workforce. I am not sure what you want me to say.
- cousin_it 15y agoThat seems to answer a different question, not the one bermanoid asked. To recap, bermanoid's question was a reply to manicdee's comment which claimed that underrepresentation of women in the tech industry, in and of itself, is evidence of sexism. Since men are underrepresented at all levels of the NHS, manicdee's theory would allow us to conclude that the NHS is sexist against men, without the need to look at any other evidence. Possible valid replies could be a) disagreeing with manicdee's argument about sexism in the tech industry, b) agreeing that the NHS is sexist against men, or c) pointing out some flaw in the above reasoning. I guess that you would answer c), but your comments so far don't seem to point out any specific flaw.
- gordonguthrie 15y agoManicdee said IT is self-absorbed and sexist therefore there are not a lot of women in it. Bermanoid said there are not a lot of men in nursing therefore nursing is sexist. 'X therefore Y' does not equal 'Y therefore X' your premise is invalid. I believe, based on many years experience of this industry that it is self-absorbed and sexist. I agree with manicdee.
- cousin_it 15y agoNo, manicdee said "How many women do you work with?" as an argument to prove that IT is sexist and no one should get offended at allegations of sexism. So both cases were "Y therefore X". I think you are really stupid. Are you sure you are a techie? What kind of techie? Do you know Haskell? ETA: Gordon and I took this conversation offline and he seems a nice enough guy, but I will still leave my rudeness here for posterity.