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But medicine and law used to be male dominated.

by elchief 13y ago

rayiner 13y ago
Yes, in the middle of the 20th century almost no doctors or lawyers were women (just a few %). The change in the status quo did not happen by magic. The respective professions made a concerted effort to address the historical disparity, and did so simply by hiring/admitting more women. Eventually, the fields stopped being so blatantly male dominated and the new ratios were "sticky." Today, law schools and med schools don't have to consciously try to hire women--their pool of qualified applicants just breaks down evenly. But tech is too idealistic/libertarian to do something like that. They'll continue to complain and be criticized for the representation of women in the field, even though at this point I think it mostly comes down to a self-perpetuating equilibrium: women self-select out of the field simply because their representation is low in the field and very few people want to bring upon themselves the challenges of being a minority.
- wpietri 13y ago
  To be fair to people in tech, I think the field also selects for people who are less socially aware. For example, I got all my early programming experience because hiding out in my dad's basement soaking up the glow of green phosphor was infinitely more pleasant than dealing with high-school society. Not because that was beneath me, although that's what I surely told myself at the time, but because I was terrible at it. It took me years to catch up with my peer group as far as social skills went. Until then, I literally could not perceive a lot of the subtle interactions that demonstrate (and perpetuate) this problem. I think that's where a lot of the field is. And, in some sense, where they want to be. It's really uncomfortable recognizing that some of what you thought was personal achievement is due to shit that shouldn't matter. It was for me, anyhow. And is, really; it's an ongoing process.

But medicine and law used to be male dominated.

by elchief 13y ago

But medicine and law used to be male dominated.

Yes, in the middle of the 20th century almost no doctors or lawyers were women (just a few %). The change in the status quo did not happen by magic. The respective professions made a concerted effort to address the historical disparity, and did so simply by hiring/admitting more women. Eventually, the fields stopped being so blatantly male dominated and the new ratios were "sticky." Today, law schools and med schools don't have to consciously try to hire women--their pool of qualified applicants just breaks down evenly. But tech is too idealistic/libertarian to do something like that. They'll continue to complain and be criticized for the representation of women in the field, even though at this point I think it mostly comes down to a self-perpetuating equilibrium: women self-select out of the field simply because their representation is low in the field and very few people want to bring upon themselves the challenges of being a minority.

wpietri 13y ago
To be fair to people in tech, I think the field also selects for people who are less socially aware. For example, I got all my early programming experience because hiding out in my dad's basement soaking up the glow of green phosphor was infinitely more pleasant than dealing with high-school society. Not because that was beneath me, although that's what I surely told myself at the time, but because I was terrible at it. It took me years to catch up with my peer group as far as social skills went. Until then, I literally could not perceive a lot of the subtle interactions that demonstrate (and perpetuate) this problem. I think that's where a lot of the field is. And, in some sense, where they want to be. It's really uncomfortable recognizing that some of what you thought was personal achievement is due to shit that shouldn't matter. It was for me, anyhow. And is, really; it's an ongoing process.