4 ms·
> It's amazing how much intellectual talent we're missing out on because it seems tech scares away women. I don't think "scares away" is accurate. There are re
by lutusp 14y ago
> It's amazing how much intellectual talent we're missing out on because it seems tech scares away women.
I don't think "scares away" is accurate. There are reasons women don't get into tech, but I don't think being scared is high on the list. I also think this will change over time -- I think social perceptions are changing and technical and scientific occupations are gradually being seen less as a male approach to processing reality and more gender-neutral.
For all our sakes, I hope this is true.
- bird_in_hand 14y agoI think scared is appropriate, inasmuch as it's a synonym for afraid. People want to choose a career they feel they can succeed in, and many women feel afraid that they can't succeed in tech, for a lot of reasons. Men feel it too, but being a minority in a field complicates things and probably makes it more likely for women to drop out or not choose tech as a career path in the first place.
- lutusp 14y ago> Men feel it too, but being a minority in a field complicates things and probably makes it more likely for women to drop out or not choose tech as a career path in the first place. That's circular. It tries to say that women are a minority in tech because they drop out in larger numbers than men, because ... they're a minority. I don't this logic stands up under scrutiny. The remedy is not to care about that. If I had to choose between being scared and having a boring life in which my gifts weren't fully exercised -- well, that would be much more scary. So even if we compare scary things, as I see it, being a member of a minority is rather low on the scary list.