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It sort of sounds from some of your posts that you think that there isn't as much of a problem with sexism in the tech industry as people make it out to be - is

It sort of sounds from some of your posts that you think that there isn't as much of a problem with sexism in the tech industry as people make it out to be - is that correct? If you haven't been a woman in the tech industry it may be hard to understand. African American friends have told me things that I was shocked to hear about, and I could barely believe what I was hearing, given that I live in a very big, liberal city, in this day and age. It's very hard to put yourself in another's shoes like that if you haven't had the experience of living it - and moreso if you're a decent person who isn't sexist, racist, etc. and have a very hard time even imagining someone seriously showing that kind of bias.

felipe 13y ago
> "given that I live in a very big, liberal city" I don't know what city you are referring to, but your post alludes to a good point which is the fact that people normally associate Silicon Valley and San Francisco as liberal, and this is very much a myth. San Francisco in specific is actually a very conservative city: Gays are accepted only in a limited area of the city, the homeless are taken as a tourist attraction, the educational system is biased towards privileged kids (for example: latino kids are excluded and bused around to other areas of the city), there is no modern urban planning such as a decent public transportation plan (BART sucks, MUNI sucks, Caltrain is not connected to BART for example) while areas such as Pacific Heights and Palo Alto love to talk about environmental issues but actively lobby for not allowing BART in their neighborhoods. Don't take me wrong: SF Bay Area is not a horrible place to live. All I am saying is that this notion that SF is liberal is wrong.
parennoob 13y ago
> It sort of sounds from some of your posts that you think that there isn't as much of a problem with sexism in the tech industry as people make it out to be - is that correct? In a way. I believe that there is low participation of females in the tech industry workforce, but only a small part of it is due to chauvinistic sexism of the kind journalists typically write about in order to get good soundbites. A lot of it (I believe) is due to the low social respect accorded to people in science and technology in this society, the lonely basement-dwelling-male-nerd stereotype, etc. > It's very hard to put yourself in another's shoes like that if you haven't had the experience of living it To clarify, I have had people show overt or covert racist attitudes towards me (I'm a person of colour), but I don't believe that the outrage-hungry attitude of the journalist industry is going to do anything to cure them. Something else, like some of the staged experiments on Upworthy that showcase racial bias, or even reverse (anti-male) sexism can help spread awareness about our cultural biases.

felipe 13y ago

> "given that I live in a very big, liberal city" I don't know what city you are referring to, but your post alludes to a good point which is the fact that people normally associate Silicon Valley and San Francisco as liberal, and this is very much a myth. San Francisco in specific is actually a very conservative city: Gays are accepted only in a limited area of the city, the homeless are taken as a tourist attraction, the educational system is biased towards privileged kids (for example: latino kids are excluded and bused around to other areas of the city), there is no modern urban planning such as a decent public transportation plan (BART sucks, MUNI sucks, Caltrain is not connected to BART for example) while areas such as Pacific Heights and Palo Alto love to talk about environmental issues but actively lobby for not allowing BART in their neighborhoods. Don't take me wrong: SF Bay Area is not a horrible place to live. All I am saying is that this notion that SF is liberal is wrong.

parennoob 13y ago

> It sort of sounds from some of your posts that you think that there isn't as much of a problem with sexism in the tech industry as people make it out to be - is that correct? In a way. I believe that there is low participation of females in the tech industry workforce, but only a small part of it is due to chauvinistic sexism of the kind journalists typically write about in order to get good soundbites. A lot of it (I believe) is due to the low social respect accorded to people in science and technology in this society, the lonely basement-dwelling-male-nerd stereotype, etc. > It's very hard to put yourself in another's shoes like that if you haven't had the experience of living it To clarify, I have had people show overt or covert racist attitudes towards me (I'm a person of colour), but I don't believe that the outrage-hungry attitude of the journalist industry is going to do anything to cure them. Something else, like some of the staged experiments on Upworthy that showcase racial bias, or even reverse (anti-male) sexism can help spread awareness about our cultural biases.