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Comment by Mz | Hacker News Reader

I'm genuinely confused.

I am sorry that you are confused. But the manner in which you are framing this makes me feel that there is nothing constructive that will come out of any additional efforts to try to clarify anything for you. You are being fairly dismissive and consistently suggesting that if I am not getting the results I desire, it must be that I have personal issues that are hampering my performance and my gender cannot possibly have anything to do with why a woman is getting a subpar performance, and never mind the aggregate statistics that agree that women generally see less success than men do professionally.

Take care.

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I'm sorry you've interpreted my attempts at responding to your comments as being dismissive, but, based on my own experiences at work and in business over the past decade and a half, I do feel strongly that the world view you have apparently adopted, which assumes that men tend to build professional relationships with women only when they harbor romantic interest and avoid them when they don't out of paranoia, does not reflect what happens in most professional settings. Furthermore, I cannot imagine that taking such a world view into every professional interaction with a member of the opposite sex can be a positive influence on the interaction.

The mere fact that there exist statistical inequalities between the sexes does not in any way prove that your world view is the root cause of these inequalities.

which assumes that men tend to build professional relationships with women only when they harbor romantic interest

Small quibble: I am not suggesting that men will only work with me if they are hoping for romance. In most cases, men willing to interact with me because they want romance are of zero value to me professionally. In fact, they often represent an obstacle to my professional goals.

I am saying that heterosexual men generally have reason to be leery of getting too close to any woman at work and, if they are in a committed relationship, can have reason to avoid being close to another woman in any way for any reason. This throws up barriers to networking, collaboration, etc for women that men typically do not face.

I don't know how I can be more clear about that. It doesn't have to involve attraction from either side, though when that is there, it certainly can complicate things.

I see nothing paranoid about men being more hesitant to seriously engage women professionally to a degree they would not hesitate to engage a similarly talented man. The possibility of it leading to problems strikes me as quite reasonable.

I don't know what you consider "getting to close to any woman at work," but I have seen plenty of men build close working relationships with female colleagues, mentor female direct reports, etc. And vice versa. I would also point out that lots of people, male and female, simply don't want to invest the time and energy required to build strong professional relationships.

Final comment: I am a heterosexual male in a committed relationship and I have never avoided a professional relationship with a woman out of fear of the "problems" you refer to. Interestingly, there are many women decision-makers today and the number of women in positions of power and influence will only grow, so men who avoid relationships with women as you suggest are just as likely to find their own professional and business interests harmed. Fortunately, I simply don't believe that most male professionals are operating the way you believe they are and I have met plenty of men and women with strong professional networks who reflect that.

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