Is sexism really prevalent in Silicon Valley? | Hacker News Reader

Is sexism really prevalent in Silicon Valley?

spiked-online.com

2 pointsrandomname23 comments

>"The Pao case also inspired the widely cited ‘Elephant in the Valley’ survey, which claimed 60 per cent of women in Silicon Valley had experienced sexual harassment, and 88 per cent had experienced unconscious bias. But this survey isn’t all it seems. ‘Unconscious bias’ is, in part, defined as ‘eye contact with male colleagues and not me’. Only 210 women took part in the survey — and it appears far from impartial. The survey was carried out by seven women working in the industry with the stated aim of proving the existence of sexism."

You can't deny that sexism exists. We have to work as individuals, as a society and as a species to end it. But absurd studies and surveys like that just hurt the cause and alienate people.

As an experienced researcher, I can assure you that the gender of the researcher is not relevant to the outcome if the study is posed in a neutral, unbiased form. Leading questions will get the results that are desired, so if you want to prove sexism exists, leading questions will get that result.

Now before I am tarred and feathered, I am making no judgment on whether sexism exists in SV or not as I am not a SV insider and have no first-hand knowledge. All I am saying is that typically when a survey is undertaken "with the stated aim of proving the existence of sexism" it is likely that it will be proven. A survey is only as good as the questionnaire and the outcome is only validated with an adequate sample size, valid measurement tool and unbiassed researcher(s).

As an aside and as an outsider looking it, if you read of a single e perience by one person you tuck it away; two, your ears perk up; three, your think there certainly could be something to the whispers; when you get to ten plus examples, you have to wonder how much more women are going to have to put up with before they are respected for their contributions, innovations, drive, etc. It does not take a team of researchers to prove things need to change.

"If some women are experiencing sexist treatment or harassment in Silicon Valley, then of course that is an issue that must be addressed. But we should be careful before suggesting this amounts to an industry-wide problem when there isn’t evidence to back it up." - Sorry, what? There are literally oceans of evidence.

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