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Comment by mef | Hacker News Reader

Yet another take on the diversity memo that doesn't mention the systemic sexism that the 50/50 target is intended to offset. The closest she gets is saying that having more women in the field will make their presence unremarkable, which will reduce bias. But what about the institutionalized sexism that prevents so many more women from ever getting anywhere near a job at Google in the first place?

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She does mention this. In fact, she even mentions that she thinks that the 50/50 target is too low.

"I believe for example if it wasn’t for biases and unequal opportunities, then the higher ranks in science and politics would be dominated by women. Hence, aiming at a 50-50 representation gives men an unfair advantage. I challenge you to provide any evidence to the contrary."

Yes, love that comment :)

Offsetting masks the problem and makes it harder to focus on or identify the institutionalized sexism.

Think about it: if you successfully offset the problem, it’d just entrench the root causes making everything seem erroneously fine, or normalizing instituionalized sexist behavior.

That does doesn't make any sense.

If the problem exists due to an imbalance, an offset can improve it.

I think what he's saying is that an artificial balance hides the actual biases. Kind of like how cooking the books doesn't mean you didn't cheat on your taxes, you just made the numbers work.

Huh? How about this point that she makes?

> The point is, it's obvious we don't live in such a fair world, but one where women are kept from succeeding by sexism. By not hiring them, or not promoting them, or not treating them fairly otherwise, not because they as individuals have flaws, but just because they are women. In this situation, noticing this and attempting to neutralise it is actually beneficial.

Edit: Oops, that's in a comment. Sorry. So the best quote is:

> I believe for example if it wasn’t for biases and unequal opportunities, then the higher ranks in science and politics would be dominated by women.

No, that's in a comment.

Thanks. I was careless in my text search.

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