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This topic is a landmine but I applaud YC for being willing to tackle it anyway. There's almost nothing that can be said on the topic without upsetting a large
by mcphilip 13y ago
This topic is a landmine but I applaud YC for being willing to tackle it anyway. There's almost nothing that can be said on the topic without upsetting a large number of people.
Before switching to CS, I spent a couple years in nursing school. Upon switching to CS, my dad told me "good, I didn't want a son that wiped asses for a living". I don't claim my experience had any equivalency to what females in tech go through, but I can attest firsthand that gender biases in choice of profession can be really hard to overcome even in the minds of the people you love.
- 001sky 13y agoThis seems to confuse social stigma and gender bias. Garbage (Bin) men are overwhelmingly male, so too are plumbers, and pest control, sewer-workers and the like. A comment like "good, I didn't want a son that wiped [shit] for a living" would apply to any of these fields, it seems without reference to gender. Quite the opposite, as dealing with such filth actually is something women quite avoid.
- mcphilip 13y agoFair enough, that specific statement could indicate a social stigma unrelated to gender. It was, however, common to encounter plenty of skepticism that nursing was a proper profession for a male.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- camelite 13y agoA closer "male" analog to nurses is cops.
- MartinCron 13y agoThere is at least some biological reasoning behind why sanitation workers are overwhelmingly male, it's a field where physical upper-body strength actually matters.
- geebee 13y agoSorry to hear that. Registered nurses actually earn a bit more (on average) than software developers in San Francisco and San Jose. Overall, though, they're pretty close, and there are plenty of good reasons to want to do one or the other. http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/registered-nurse/salary http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/registered-nurse/s... http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/software-developer/salary http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/software-developer...
- MartinCron 13y agoThe people upset by this discussion? I've almost entirely run out of sympathy for them.