4 ms·
And your point is? Assuming your point is "we need more women in panels", here's my take as a consumer: I want to listen to experts, not experts who are women,
by mildbow 11y ago
And your point is?
Assuming your point is "we need more women in panels", here's my take as a consumer: I want to listen to experts, not experts who are women, or experts who are black or experts who are gay or experts who are latino.
And anyway, say we get a 50-50 split for women-men in panels. Then what? A population proportionate mix of asian/latino/black/white women?
How about we listen to what people have to say based on just that? Rather than what your preconceived notions of what constitutes as a disadvantage blah blah that needs to be artificially corrected.
And anyway, that would still be treating the symptom, not the cause.
- ch4s3 11y agoI think the point is that there are plenty of experts who are women, like Carin Meier. They are underrepresented on panels and in these sort of interview series, for no good reason other than 'its always been that way.' As an engineer, I'm personally interested in different perspectives.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- mildbow 11y agoUm. Yeah. That's what I address with "Assuming your point is "we need more women in panels""
- ch4s3 11y agoI think something that begins to approach the actual mix of experts in the field would be fine. The point is to add some diversity in perspective not some aimless drive to hit some percentage. Its just that when all of the people interviewed or on panels are white men, it makes you wonder what kind of interesting people you aren't hearing from.
- jowiar 11y agoI think "it's always been that way" is a bit too harsh -- I think it's less about people huddled in a back room making a preconceived intention to be sexist and more often through things like "Well, I'll start by calling my friends". Top that off with a bit of an echo chamber effect, "I'll get people for my panel who I've seen on a panel" and it's pretty easy to accidentally end up with a panel of men. But the lack of overt intention in the cause doesn't mean it is something to ignore, or that it can't be fixed. But being aware of "My life circumstances have led me to a situation such that if I don't pay attention when putting this panel together, there's a pretty good chance I'm going to end up with a bunch of dudes on stage." is important.
- ch4s3 11y agoYeah, I totally agree. I was being a bit hyperbolic to make my point.
- jowiar 11y agoI know. But if we make it too easy to blame "the system" or "sexists" or any reasonable definition of "other people", we all forget to look in the mirror.
- codygman 11y ago> I think it's less about people huddled in a back room making a preconceived intention to be sexist Usually it's more of a (usually unnoticed) bias of "he is probably more likely to be an expert than her". With that bias keeping the perpetrator in the dark sexism can masquerade as meritocracy.
- brudgers 11y agoThere are plenty of experts who are women who are not Carin Meier or Sarah Chips or Kathy Sierra, just as there are expert men who are not Uncle Bob, David Hansen, or Paul Graham. The point is that members of the latter group are easy to come up and acceptable. Finding members of the former group requires effort beyond the currently trending level of imagination.
- mechanicum 11y agoI want to listen to experts. I don't believe expertise is solely the province of straight white men. If the interviews I see are overwhelmingly with straight white men, then there is surely expertise I'm not being exposed to. It's not complicated.
- rfrey 11y agoI agree with the active promotion of diversity, but I wonder how you know that you're looking at straight men on these interviews?
- mechanicum 11y agoBecause the only way you could know anything about anyone online is by looking at their interview mugshot? My point wasn't actually "active promotion of diversity", merely representation of the diversity that already exists.