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"StackOverflow is a meritocracy, therefore women should feel just as welcome as men." Some women tell you that it's not. Is your first reaction: [a] we should h
by breadbox 14y ago
"StackOverflow is a meritocracy, therefore women should feel just as welcome as men." Some women tell you that it's not. Is your first reaction: [a] we should honestly try to listen to their feedback , or [b] publicly hypothesize that they're probably just whining because they can't take the heat? One of these answers leads to change, the other demonstrates how an egalitarian space turns unwelcoming.
Sick of hearing how sexist Internet forums are? Good! Let's keep working to change that. Other than discouraging people from pointing it out I mean.
- MiguelHudnandez 14y agoTo whom are you responding? I cannot find your quotation anywhere else in the discussion, but I used the word "meritocracy" and I'm worried you interpreted my comment elsewhere in the thread as hostile.
- breadbox 14y agoNot at all. It's a rhetorical quotation; I'm not responding to any one person. (I suppose that's part of the issue: it's rarely any one person that's behaving badly; it's the cumulative effect.)