3 ms·

"she"?

• nostrademons 12y ago
  Several tech bloggers/writers (Ben Horowitz of a16z is probably the most prominent) have taken to using female pronouns when referring to unspecified tech leaders (CEOs, founders, high-level engineers). This is a way to combat sexism and unconscious bias in the tech community - by sorta jarring you out of your expectations of what gender a prominent tech person is, you're made to consciously think "Why wouldn't a woman be in this position? Why is my default assumption that a high-performing engineer is male?" Much like your post. Anyway, I support this trend and I've been known to do it myself sometimes. It's a little disorienting when the hypothetical subject of a thread flips genders halfway through, but the person is only hypothetical anyway, so why not?