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I think this is really important. It would be very wrong to dismiss it with tone policing or other superficial commentary. The underlying point is that there ar
by benwerd 12y ago
I think this is really important. It would be very wrong to dismiss it with tone policing or other superficial commentary. The underlying point is that there are a lot of women in the technology industry who believe - rightly - that they are being mistreated.
That's not necessarily to say that the rest of us are doing it deliberately (although some undoubtedly are). But it's important to grow our own awareness and build more inclusive cultures at our startups, and continue to be aware, work on improving ourselves, and, more than anything else, listen.
I'm down with Uber for cats though. Maybe with VR and drones?
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- dragonwriter 12y ago> It's not proposing anything other than taking your ball and leaving, which just makes it worse for the women who choose to stay. I don't see how it makes thing worse for the women who choose to stay in existing environments. If the strategy of setting up organizations on the model proposed works, how concretely will it make things worse for women who choose to remain in other firms? > Awareness is important, but this is an unproductive way to spread it. I don't think this is an effort to spread awareness. I think this is an expression that spreading awareness has, from its author's (or authors') perspective, been done but that awareness hasn't translated into adequate improvements in substantive conditions, and that the way to improve substantive conditions is to build organizations that from day one lack the features that have produced the bad conditions that awareness has failed to cure.
- benwerd 12y agoI think that's more than fair, and I don't understand why anyone would have any problem with building better organizations. The response to "women are having a shitty time in the tech industry" should be "let's fix this and its root causes, because it will make our companies better," not a lot of the sexist knee-jerk reactions we've seen.
- Frondo 11y ago"because it will make our companies better" is an OK reason, I guess, but I prefer "because it is the right thing to do for our fellow human beings".
- AnimalMuppet 11y agoGo for both. Some people will be more motivated by doing the right thing, some will be more motivated by making more money. The two are compatible. Yes, it would be nice if (all, or at least enough) people were motivated by "doing the right thing" to fix things. Human beings being what they are, though, money as a motivator works pretty well.
- benwerd 11y agoI strongly agree with you on a personal level, but I also think there's something to be said for a non-ideological brass tacks bottom line approach (particularly in a community like HN). I genuinely wish that the ideological reason played well everywhere, but I'm not sure it does. As another commenter has said: both are good.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- yuvadam 12y agoPlease. I'd be happy to hear what steps you believe are more productive. I'm kind of sick hearing men dismiss anything women (and other men!) are trying to do to raise awareness to these inequalities, as if they have nothing to do with it. We (men) need to actively work to resolve gender inequalities in our workplaces and in any place, and the least we can do is be supportive allies. [1][2][3][4] [1] - http://www.scn.org/friends/ally.html http://www.scn.org/friends/ally.html [2] - http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/11/things-allies-need-to-kn... http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/11/things-allies-need-to-kn.... [3] - http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Allies http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Allies [4] - http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Resources_for_allies http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Resources_for_allies