Hacker News Reader

Comment by wooshy | Hacker News Reader

I agree that an equally qualified woman should be compensated the same as a man. What I fail to understand is why anyone cares that the tech industry has more males than females. If more males are interested in working with technology than females are then of course there will be more males in the industry. Why do people see this as some kind of problem that needs to be fixed? I understand that having a diverse team brings different viewpoints that might allow for solutions to be found that may not have been found without that other viewpoint. Is that all that this is about? (besides pay differences)

View on HN

Is that all that this is about?

No, this is about the number of women who would like to be included but who remain excluded. That is what this is about.

And this piece doesn't really do anything about it. It very much misses the mark. But, of course, people like discussing crap like this. It can feel like they are doing something about it when they aren't actually doing anything at all about it. "Let's measure sexism endlessly, instead of putting time and effort into actually moving those numbers that we talk too damn much about."

> If more males are interested in working with technology than females

You put the "If" at the beginning of that sentence. It's a big "If". Imagine if that's just not true. Then just keep imagining that.

? imagine if it's not true? the numbers say that it is true...

Don't you agree that the numbers are the way they are because of cultural stereotypes? If there were more female tech role models that females with a budding interest in tech can look up to, that would move the needle. I don't think you can simply say "look men are more interested in tech than women" and wipe your hands of the situation. We have to change our culture in order for more women to excel and therefore become role models for the next generation.

> Don't you agree that the numbers are the way they are because of cultural stereotypes?

Partly because of cultural stereotypes. And partly because there actually are differences between males and females. The part that's because of cultural stereotypes, yes, we should fight. And the part that isn't, we should accept.

And what if reality differs from what I'm imagining?

Yeah, I know, imagine that reality matches my imagination. But does it?

Well if it's not true then someone can go ahead and prove it?

> I understand that having a diverse team brings different viewpoints that might allow for solutions to be found that may not have been found without that other viewpoint. Is that all that this is about?

That is an ostensible reason. Another is to correct the inequality caused by societal pressures discouraging women from pursuing careers in tech. The other possible reasons are not allowed to be discussed here.

> That is an ostensible reason. Another is to correct the inequality caused by societal pressures discouraging women from pursuing careers in tech.

Where's the social movement to correct the inequality caused by societal pressures discouraging women from pursuing careers as coal miners? That's a male dominated field that is surprisingly lucrative.

> Where's the social movement to correct the inequality caused by societal pressures discouraging women from pursuing careers as coal miners?

Did you search? Because it's the first fucking hit on any search engine: https://www.womeninmining.org.uk/

Here's a comment from 2 years ago on HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9227796

In the US?

So this sort of thing for women in tech isn't going too far if a similar thing is happening to coal miners very specifically in the US? Where was this going?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com