7 ms·

LinkedIn announces Global Women's hackday event in Mountain View and New Delhi

28 points by iag 14y ago

sudeepy 14y ago
Really excited to see what comes out of this!
- iag 14y ago
  I believe this is the first of its kind. Both women-centric and international. Props to the Slideshare team for coming up with the idea and putting it together!
d_j 14y ago
awesome. looking forward to this and more in the future.
sidcool1234 14y ago
Just wondering, if there was an Men's hackday, would that be look upon as a sexist event?
- lclarkmichalek 14y ago
  Probably. Because men make up the majority of the software industry, it would be a little pointless to have a Men's hackerday, and so would be seen as excluding women for the sake of excluding women. This hacker day on the other hand targets women, who are a minority, and thus has a purpose for excluding men other than misandry.
- hackinthebochs 14y ago
  I would hope the readership around here could elevate the discussion beyond trite little quips such as this. Again I come away disappointed. For future reference: these "reverse the roles" arguments are about as shallow and ignorant as one can get. The context is completely different for the "reversed" roles, rendering the comparison not even meaningless, but downright hostile.
antr 14y ago
If we keep telling women that they need a "women's hack day", a such and such women's event, etc, all we are doing is creating a bigger gender disparity. I start to think of these events as pure PR stunts, rather than Linkedin et al. tackling any underlying gender issues.
- jeffool 14y ago
  I totally get what you're saying, and of course companies do things for PR, but typically events like these are not only about the competition, but also about raising awareness, showing women in male dominated areas "hey look, women do this too. It's perfectly acceptable to be interested in it!" Now, if that's the message that's taken from this? That's open to discussion. And a discussion I'm not much of a part of, being a guy.
- joering2 14y ago
  correct, and LinkedIn needs tons of positive PR now like never before!!
- lclarkmichalek 14y ago
  I think you need to back up your reasoning for how this creates a bigger gender gap. The aim of this event is not to create cliques of female programmers who only work at 100% female companies and only attend womens' events, which would do as you say, but to try and encourage more females to enter/stay in the industry, which would reduce gender disparity by moving the proportion of male to female members towards 0.5.
  - antr 14y ago
    gender disparity isn't about equaling ratios (i.e. volume), it's about aptitude and ability. That is exactly what I mean by "bigger gender gap". Awareness should focus on abilities and not about "lets get a 50/50 gender balance for the sake of equality". Creating a gender biased event only promotes the wrong reasons why women should go into software development (or any other industry).
    - 14y ago

28 points by iag 14y ago

sudeepy 14y ago

Really excited to see what comes out of this!

iag 14y ago
I believe this is the first of its kind. Both women-centric and international. Props to the Slideshare team for coming up with the idea and putting it together!

d_j 14y ago

awesome. looking forward to this and more in the future.

sidcool1234 14y ago

Just wondering, if there was an Men's hackday, would that be look upon as a sexist event?

lclarkmichalek 14y ago
Probably. Because men make up the majority of the software industry, it would be a little pointless to have a Men's hackerday, and so would be seen as excluding women for the sake of excluding women. This hacker day on the other hand targets women, who are a minority, and thus has a purpose for excluding men other than misandry.
hackinthebochs 14y ago
I would hope the readership around here could elevate the discussion beyond trite little quips such as this. Again I come away disappointed. For future reference: these "reverse the roles" arguments are about as shallow and ignorant as one can get. The context is completely different for the "reversed" roles, rendering the comparison not even meaningless, but downright hostile.

antr 14y ago

If we keep telling women that they need a "women's hack day", a such and such women's event, etc, all we are doing is creating a bigger gender disparity. I start to think of these events as pure PR stunts, rather than Linkedin et al. tackling any underlying gender issues.

jeffool 14y ago
I totally get what you're saying, and of course companies do things for PR, but typically events like these are not only about the competition, but also about raising awareness, showing women in male dominated areas "hey look, women do this too. It's perfectly acceptable to be interested in it!" Now, if that's the message that's taken from this? That's open to discussion. And a discussion I'm not much of a part of, being a guy.
joering2 14y ago
correct, and LinkedIn needs tons of positive PR now like never before!!
lclarkmichalek 14y ago
I think you need to back up your reasoning for how this creates a bigger gender gap. The aim of this event is not to create cliques of female programmers who only work at 100% female companies and only attend womens' events, which would do as you say, but to try and encourage more females to enter/stay in the industry, which would reduce gender disparity by moving the proportion of male to female members towards 0.5.
- antr 14y ago
  gender disparity isn't about equaling ratios (i.e. volume), it's about aptitude and ability. That is exactly what I mean by "bigger gender gap". Awareness should focus on abilities and not about "lets get a 50/50 gender balance for the sake of equality". Creating a gender biased event only promotes the wrong reasons why women should go into software development (or any other industry).
  - 14y ago