6 ms·

> Notice which of those things is not like the others? That’s right, number eight appears to be placing female employees on roughly the same level a jar of choc

• roflc0ptic 13y ago
  Interpreting this to mean that it's a "fun and diverse work place" is pretty tortured exegesis. The reason this is a problem is that it's alienating to women to describe them as job perks. Like, look. Empathize a little. What if you're a straight lady dev looking for a job? Why would "female" devs be a job perk? Many women take being massive issue with being described as "female." Further, describing them by nationality has an element of exoticizing them. More fundamentally though, the line signals that this environment is a male environment. Its boys club signaling, even if you don't want it to be. Even if it doesn't bother you personally.
  • sanderjd 13y ago
    > What if you're a straight lady dev looking for a job? Why would "female" devs be a job perk? Because many women are sick of always being the only woman on a development team. I think the line can be read to either signal that the environment is female-dominated ("There are lots of women here to work with!") or male-dominated ("There are lots of women here to objectify!"). Whatever their intent, it's a terribly awkward line.
  • VMG 13y ago
    What if you're a straight lady dev looking for a job? Are you suggesting that women don't like with other women? Most tech shops have much less men then women, which is boring. This ad wanted to highlight that this place has more diversity. As with all language, the wording is a little ambiguous. The article (and many commenters) choose to interpret the line in the worst possible way and think the company is a misogynist hellhole and probably think that the four women working there are kept on leashes.
    • PebblesRox 13y ago
      I doubt that Richard Green had any malicious intentions in his comments; it was probably an innocent mistake. If you look at the literal meaning of what he wrote, you can see that he probably wanted to highlight the diversity. But I don't think you can deny that the wording he chose has unfortunate connotations and I think it's worth pointing that out because those connotations, while subtle and subjective, are real and they can be harmful. I think at the very least we can agree that they have harmed the image of evvnt, which is the opposite of what he intended. No one is suggesting that women don't like to work together. It's that we don't want to work in a place where the men subconsciously think of us as a temptation, a reward, a decoration, or a commodity. That's the impression that Green's post gives, even though I'm sure that's not what he intended. Does that make sense? I can try to explain better if you have questions.
  • Dewie 13y ago
    > Many women take being massive issue with being described as "female." "Female developers" sounds like a zoologist describing the savannah of the office environment.
• tomku 13y ago
  A diverse workplace is a perk, and belongs on a list of perks like the one given. "4X female developers" are not perks, they're people. When you put them on a list of perks alongside paid vacation, free chocolates and a keg of beer, you're objectifying them for use as bargaining chips.
  • PebblesRox 13y ago
    Do you know what the 4X part means? Are they trying to say they have four times the typical amount of women or is it something else? I'll give them the benefit of the doubt in terms of having good intentions, but I agree that they way they suggested women as something to tempt the reader away is just icky. I'm not sure that Richard Green gets that based on his apology. It would have been nice if he had been more explicit about what he did wrong and come up with a better alternative. He makes lots of claims about how evvnt is pro-diversity and anti-discrimination, but it's all tell and no show. Maybe the comments from employees at the bottom are supposed to be more of a demonstration, but right now they're also pretty vague and I think most of the commenters are men.
    • tomku 13y ago
      I assumed that it meant 4 developers, but after seeing responses saying that they don't have any developers at all yet, perhaps it means "four times as many female developers as male developers".
• city41 13y ago
  No, you really can't. The women are being sold as if they are kegerators or ping pong tables. This is not appropriate.
• mratzloff 13y ago
  "How about a harem?" may not be what he wrote, but it's definitely the tone. That says "sexist", not "fun and diverse".