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It's a repost for us maybe - because this is an issue that's finally being talked about within the industry. Keep in mind that Newsweek is a mainstream publicat

It's a repost for us maybe - because this is an issue that's finally being talked about within the industry. Keep in mind that Newsweek is a mainstream publication, so for many readers this is the first they'll have heard of tech industry sexism. The significance of this article isn't that it makes any revolutionary advancement in thought or argument (it doesn't), but that it is one of few high-profile accounts of the problem accessible to mainstream non-tech audiences. And this is IMO important - maybe unmasking the festering sores that blight this industry to the wider world would be a motivation to address them. I agree with you in spirit though - in fact I take issue with them quoting Wadhwa so liberally, the guy's promotion of women in tech reeks of opportunism and chauvinistic paternalism - just read his quotes in this article where he paints women founders as a bunch of lost lamb who are too dumb to know when a VC is hitting on them, who are then saved by his sagely advice.

Kalium 12y ago
Perhaps seeing the constant stream of do-nothing protests in the Bay has made me cynical. So take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. I have exactly zero faith in the power of "awareness" or similar to affect much of anything. Beyond clogging up BART because someone has chained themselves to something again to raise awareness for something-or-other. Doubly so when it plays neatly into a larger cultural narrative about nerds as The Other, in need of forcible correction by right-thinking people.
- geofft 12y ago
  I've been thinking for some time about the environmentalists. I'm relatively young, but I recall in the '90s and a bit in the '00s, the environmentalists were portrayed in media (sometimes older media) as bleeding-heart liberals, people who chained themselves to trees, vegans like PETA, ecoterrorists like Greenpeace, etc. Today, the stodgiest, most conservative industries have email footers reading "Save a tree -- think before printing." I can't find anything else to explain that other than "awareness". And I usually am one to believe in the power of protests, but this particular change baffles me... yet it still happened.
  - Kalium 12y ago
    Given that this "change" consists mostly of cookie-cutter email footers instead of drastic environmental change, I think we see the power of awareness laid bare. It also shows that arguments about how printing costs more money than email-only were better-received than what preceded them.

Kalium 12y ago

Perhaps seeing the constant stream of do-nothing protests in the Bay has made me cynical. So take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. I have exactly zero faith in the power of "awareness" or similar to affect much of anything. Beyond clogging up BART because someone has chained themselves to something again to raise awareness for something-or-other. Doubly so when it plays neatly into a larger cultural narrative about nerds as The Other, in need of forcible correction by right-thinking people.

geofft 12y ago
I've been thinking for some time about the environmentalists. I'm relatively young, but I recall in the '90s and a bit in the '00s, the environmentalists were portrayed in media (sometimes older media) as bleeding-heart liberals, people who chained themselves to trees, vegans like PETA, ecoterrorists like Greenpeace, etc. Today, the stodgiest, most conservative industries have email footers reading "Save a tree -- think before printing." I can't find anything else to explain that other than "awareness". And I usually am one to believe in the power of protests, but this particular change baffles me... yet it still happened.
- Kalium 12y ago
  Given that this "change" consists mostly of cookie-cutter email footers instead of drastic environmental change, I think we see the power of awareness laid bare. It also shows that arguments about how printing costs more money than email-only were better-received than what preceded them.