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Comment by dclowd9901 | Hacker News Reader

> Over and over, Dr. Cheryan and her colleagues have found that female students are more interested in enrolling in a computer class if they are shown a classroom (whether virtual or real) decorated not with “Star Wars” posters, science-fiction books, computer parts and tech magazines, but with a more neutral décor — art and nature posters, coffee makers, plants and general-interest magazines.

Sans the "general interest magazines" (so vanilla, it makes me want to barf), this sounds like a rather pleasant work environment. I'm so used to working in a dark cave with Boba Fett stand-ups everywhere, it'd be nice to work in a place with more greenery, natural tones and airiness. Nest's offices were a lot like this, and were one of the factors I liked about working there.

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Let's suppose I worked at a desk next to yours, and one day, I brought in an elaborate lego Millennium Falcon to put next to my monitor. Would you support a policy that required me to remove this icon of geekdom in the name of making the workspace more welcoming for women?

In a more traditional workplace, such as a law firm, your boss would tell you to take your Milennium Falcon home because it's unprofessional. Professionalism is a virtue which is deeply underrated by the computational professions.

Part of "professionalism" is the recognition that you can be whoever you want to be on your own time, but while you're at work your personal identity is partially subsumed into your identity as a member of a profession. That means you dress, decorate, talk and behave in a way that's a bit more neutral and respectable than you might in your college dorm room.

This is a bit dull, sure, but it also enables all sorts of people to work together effectively by papering over their individual differences with a shared professional identity. The fact that your coworkers are of a different sex or generation to you and like different things is pretty immaterial when you're all wearing suits, sitting at undecorated desks and talking about work. Nobody will be alienated by your dick jokes, because nobody makes dick jokes.

Greater professionalism is the solution to many of the tech industry's problems.

That's implying that law firms are more professional just because of a veneer of 'professionalism' (whatever that means.) Law firms are notorious for sexism and classism. If anything that fake 'professionalism' simply masks the true deviousness of the male-dominated law firm. 'Professionalism' has nothing to do with clothes or Star Wars; it has everything to do with attitude. A graphic design firm has a far different version of professionalism than does a law firm, but that doesn't make design any less professional. Professionalism doesn't mean 'generic.' Also, what's sexist about Star Wars? That implication that girls don't like Star Wars is itself sexist. By removing Star Wars from your desk, you're actually being more sexist by suggesting that girls might find it offensive. A suit and tie have nothing to do with professionalism in general; it's contextual. Software engineers aren't going to the courtroom, just like lawyers aren't playing in the NFL. That doesn't make any of those professionals less professional. The IBM white shirt black tie uniform back in the day didn't encourage more women to enter tech and it could be argued that those guys oozed professionalism. Is Mark Zuckerberg less professional because of his attire? Professionalism is an attitude, not a uniform or style of decoration. Professionalism is about maturity, fair mindedness and respect, not whether or not Chewbacca is in your desk.

Here's a thought: If we, as an industry, started to move away from this "everyone in one big shared bullpen" / open-plan model, and started giving people individual offices again, would that make things better? Because now, you, as, say, a female programmer, are free to decorate your office in pink and with "Sex In The City" posters, and issues of Cosmo or whatever (if that's what floats your boat) while your co-worker can have Doctor Who and Star Wars posters, and electronics magazines, blah, blah (or vice versa).

Personally I think that one of the best way to accomodate the uniqueness that makes us all individuals, is to embrace that individual nature and give people solo offices. Of course, that's not the only reason I advocate for private offices, but it's hard not to think that it would help in this regard as well.

I wouldn't require any sort of thing, but given a decor of clean lines, natural colors and greenery, I'd definitely question your aesthetics.

What is a "general-interest" magazine? Outside of something so vanilla as National Geographic, Time, or Newsweek, I can't think of magazines that aren't market-segment sliced-and-diced.

Computer parts and tech magazines might be inevitable detritus of any office/area focused on working with technology. Do I have to lockup my programming books and hide away the spare components I'm working with?

The Economist? Scientific American? The New Yorker?

Are Time and Newsweek even being published anymore?

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