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I am from India and on H1B visa in United States. I still don't understand why there is more hustling in recent years about women participation ? Be it playing

• kelukelugames 12y ago
  I have some thoughts on 2 and 3. 2. I wholly support helping underrepresented minorities in tech because I believe in fairness. But anytime gender or race is involved, then the topic is political by definition. I follow the White House on twitter and a ton of their tweets are about equal pay. Both Romney and McCain addressed this issue during their campaigns and were criticized for their responses. Yes, it is a political tool. But just because politicians are involved does not make it a gimmick. 3. I agree that the ideal scenario is for tech to be one of the career choices. The problem is people are pushed away from certain fields. Coming to the US to work on a H1B is made easier because many Indians and Chinese have done it before us. Having people who look like me achieve something is a great self confidence boost and motivator. Unfortunately, other minorities groups do not have this benefit. Perhaps Neil deGrasse Tyson can explain it better than me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inz1sdhsMCU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inz1sdhsMCU
• dominotw 12y ago
  I can't find the research study now but there was one done in Sweden which concluded that in countries with more economic freedom to choose careers women choose non-STEM careers unlike India and Pakistan where careers are still largely motivated by economic incentives.
• dyno12345 12y ago
  Countries with lower levels of economic development often have the highest ratios of female engineers and wealthier countries often have the lowest ratios. One explanation is once you're free to do whatever you want and you don't have to worry about expectations or putting food on the table so much, the influence of subtle innate genetic preferences actually become much more apparent in some ways. However, this explanation goes against the rules of the western view that predominates, that the gender ratio of fewer women in some area (but often not when there are fewer men in some area) mean is proof in point that women are being harmed and should be given assistance. If discrimination causes the difference, why do countries like Iran or Saudi Arabia have around the highest ratios of female engineers and countries like the Netherlands or Norway around the lowest?
  • spcoll 12y ago
    Are you denying that women are being heavily discriminated against in developed countries, like Norway or the Netherlands? Technology and entrepreneurship are very attractive in terms of social prestige and salary, therefore if women weren't being harassed and discouraged by men from entering these fields, you would be seeing roughly 50% of female engineers and entrepreneurs. Maybe even somewhat more, since women tend to be smarter than men on average (which is why girls tend to succeed better in school than boys). Edit: here come the downvotes from males in denial. If you feel the need to downvote me because I am stating a simple fact, you are part of the problem.
    • aragot 12y ago
      > since women tend to be smarter than men on average Ok, we need to stop with sexist insults right now, and it's valid for men too. Define "smarter".
      • barry-cotter 12y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_differences_in_intelligence#Current_research_on_general_intelligence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_differences_in_intelligenc... According to the 1994 report "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns" by the American Psychological Association, "Most standard tests of intelligence have been constructed so that there are no overall score differences between females and males." Differences have been found, however, in specific areas such as mathematics and verbal measures.[9] When standardized IQ tests were first developed in the early 20th century, girls typically scored higher than boys until age 14, at which time the curve for girls dropped below that for boys.[8][10] As testing methodology was revised, efforts were made to equalize gender performance.[10][11][12] The mean IQ scores between men and women vary little.[9][13][14][15][16] The variability of male scores is greater than that of females, however, resulting in more males than females in the top and bottom of the IQ distribution.[17]
• jacalata 12y ago
  It sounds like you think that that if nobody was talking about women in tech, then women would be able to freely choose between all available careers. Is that right? Because the basic premise of most discussion is that this is not the case, and that there are multiple factors that currently mean American women who may want to go into tech find it harder than men do (these factors ranging from cultural pressures starting at birth to intrinsic biases when hiring adults). So your question sounds like "wouldn't putting a ramp in place of some steps be depriving people in wheelchairs of their right to not be interested in going into the room?" Sure, there are people who disagree with that premise - but you should be clear that you are disagreeing with it, or your conversations in this area will likely be confusing. As to 'why in America and not India': It is pretty well known that these factors vary widely by country - you might be interested in looking at relative achievement in math by school students in various countries as a starting point for the idea that culture of a country influences achievement by each gender. I understand that you may not have come across this topic before but no, it is absolutely nothing to do with American elections and has been an issue for many, many, many years.