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Being a woman in business, especially in the tech industry, is hard but gets easier as you grow older: you get isolated, pointed out, 'discussed' and I've had c
by marquis 13y ago
Being a woman in business, especially in the tech industry, is hard but gets easier as you grow older: you get isolated, pointed out, 'discussed' and I've had clients marvel at my technical prowess, as if it were some magical gift endowed to but a few women. It took me years to learn to cope, and to have the confidence to say, it's not about me. It's about whoever is saying those things. Every day I am the sole woman in my workplace and that's OK. Most of our customers couldn't give a damn, as long as we fix those bugs and make new features. It's hardest in public, I avoid industry meet-ups, but I'm also very reserved as a person which is probably more related, and why I speak anonymously online. It's hard to read these articles and then see maybe 95% (99.5%?) of the commenters are men. It makes me the 'other' and it's awkward but I love what I do and I love HN because in my workplace, the men around me don't give it a moments thought that I'm the 'other' and I know that the majority of the men here are also the same when it comes down to it.
Sandberg has a right to her own opinions about how things work for her as a leader and a parent. Just like everyone here has their own opinion about pretty much everything.
- parennoob 13y agoI don't understand the "hard to read these articles and then see maybe 95% (99.5%?) of the commenters are men" bit. These articles are typically published in rags like the Atlantic, which I would imagine have fairly equal gender-distributed commenters, or even skewing female. Or if you mean comments on HN, how do you know the genders of the people who are commenting? Not everyone mentions their gender in their comment / profile.
- marquis 13y agoI mean on HN - to say how it feels: it's like being put on show in some glass box, being talked about like a rare specimen. It's just strange. I don't know if it's just me as I can't speak for other women.
- foobarbazqux 13y agoYou're not wrong about the percentages. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2175603 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2175603 There was a similar poll this year with similar results but I can't find it.
- saraid216 13y agoImagine if you put up a technical article and the only people commenting were career politicians.
- aestra 13y agoThis is an absolutely perfect example!!! "Series of tubes"
- overgryphon 13y agoGender discussion on HN can feel like men coming together to discuss their observations of women like a group of biologists. It can be a little dehumanizing.
- parennoob 13y agoI wonder if it feels the other way in women's studies classes. I understand those are largely female-populated.
- sambeau 13y agoI hate to disappoint but women's studies classes don't spend their time discussing men. The clue is in the name.
- parennoob 13y agoDecent amount of snark there, but could you back it up and have a women's studies class without discussing some form of male oppression or domination at least once?
- sambeau 13y agoDiscussing some form of male oppression or domination is not the same as discussing men.
- foobarbazqux 13y agoWomen are defined relative to men, just as men are defined relative to women. If there were no men, women would just be "people". In discussing one, you implicitly discuss the other. Whatever makes women into women, men are not that. Except, "woman" and "man" can also be seen as archetypes, and it's possible to integrate both, at least to some degree.
- mkr-hn 13y agoThis is contrary to everything I've heard from women who tried a women's studies class. Apparently the patriarchy hypothesis features prominently.
- gbog 13y agoBeing 'other' is sometime annoying and hard yes. On HN I am 'other' because I am not from the US and English is not my mother tongue and I don't watch Netflix. At work I am the only foreigner in a Chinese company. But being other means you are special and provided some sufficient open mindedness, you can bring a fresh point of view to the discussion.
- joyeuse6701 13y agoHow do women react when they hear you're in the tech industry? I think that would be more enlightening than how a majority acts around a minority and would shed some light on whether there is anecdotal credibility to the author's point about preference between the genders determining societal positions.
- marquis 13y agoI get called by most of my women friends to fix their computer problems or for technical purchasing advice, almost never by men unless it's related to work and I'm the expert on the topic. Anecdote-wise I have a million stories about what it's like to be known socially as a technical person: I'm not sure most of those stories are any different from what it's like to be a technical person in any otherwise non-technical environment. One thing that is quite special in my life: I have the honour to be around several young girls via my family and friends, and they don't treat me any different at all and often tell me pointedly how they know more about their devices than I do (I don't play games so they delight in showing me the details and beating me).