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Tell HN: The "sexism in IT" bit is getting old

3 points by boboblong 14y ago

The bitching and moaning about sexism in IT needs to stop. Men are a little smarter than women on average, and the male IQ distribution has a higher SD. Men and women also have divergent interests, across all cultures and societies of all time periods. In a society completely free of sexism of any kind, IT would still be 80%+ male. By the way, white American women are the most privileged group of people to ever exist. The amount of time that they spend complaining is absolutely staggering.

gavanwoolery 14y ago
Yes. :) I think we can all agree that none of us are really sexist, at least in the vast majority of cases. Believing that men and women are different is not sexism - men and women are different. As soon as more women enter CS, more will be in IT. If not, they simply are mostly not interested at this point in time and there is nothing wrong with that. No one is holding anyone back.
vectorbunny 14y ago
Awesome troll, dude. What's wrong with being 'sexy'?
dfgh9rad 14y ago
> Men are a little smarter than women on average, and the male IQ distribution has a higher SD No. The higher SD means that men's IQs are spread over a bigger range - there are more brilliant men than women, and also more moronic men than women. Average it out and it's the same.
- boboblong 14y ago
  > Average it out and it's the same. Nope. It appears that way if you test people under the age of 25, because women reach maturity much earlier than men do. If you only test people who are at least 25, the male average is 3-5 points higher than the female average.
Kartificial 14y ago
So why start another topic to discuss it? Seems contradictory to me.
roguecoder 14y ago
You know what is old? Sexism. When people in IT stop being sexist, we'll stop talking about it.
egillie 14y ago
You mean men test better on average? And male variance in test scores (even in math) is higher in most countries, not all. See sources 40-43 here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_psychology#IQ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_psychology#IQ And involvement in tech is not lopsided in every country -- look at Malaysia. http://iae-pedia.org/Women_and_ICT#Women_in_IT_in_Malaysia http://iae-pedia.org/Women_and_ICT#Women_in_IT_in_Malaysia Please don't spew non-science as science, or please cite your sources if they're credible. Further, American white men are probably the most privileged group, just look at salaries, Fortune 500 CEOs, government positions, self-reported happiness, or sexual assault statistics. Occasional free drinks for women at bars does not make women a privileged group.

3 points by boboblong 14y ago

gavanwoolery 14y ago

Yes. :) I think we can all agree that none of us are really sexist, at least in the vast majority of cases. Believing that men and women are different is not sexism - men and women are different. As soon as more women enter CS, more will be in IT. If not, they simply are mostly not interested at this point in time and there is nothing wrong with that. No one is holding anyone back.

vectorbunny 14y ago

Awesome troll, dude. What's wrong with being 'sexy'?

dfgh9rad 14y ago

> Men are a little smarter than women on average, and the male IQ distribution has a higher SD No. The higher SD means that men's IQs are spread over a bigger range - there are more brilliant men than women, and also more moronic men than women. Average it out and it's the same.

boboblong 14y ago
> Average it out and it's the same. Nope. It appears that way if you test people under the age of 25, because women reach maturity much earlier than men do. If you only test people who are at least 25, the male average is 3-5 points higher than the female average.

Kartificial 14y ago

So why start another topic to discuss it? Seems contradictory to me.

roguecoder 14y ago

You know what is old? Sexism. When people in IT stop being sexist, we'll stop talking about it.

egillie 14y ago

You mean men test better on average? And male variance in test scores (even in math) is higher in most countries, not all. See sources 40-43 here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_psychology#IQ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_psychology#IQ And involvement in tech is not lopsided in every country -- look at Malaysia. http://iae-pedia.org/Women_and_ICT#Women_in_IT_in_Malaysia http://iae-pedia.org/Women_and_ICT#Women_in_IT_in_Malaysia Please don't spew non-science as science, or please cite your sources if they're credible. Further, American white men are probably the most privileged group, just look at salaries, Fortune 500 CEOs, government positions, self-reported happiness, or sexual assault statistics. Occasional free drinks for women at bars does not make women a privileged group.