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Comment by ImSkeptical | Hacker News Reader

Young women (20-35) are more likely to get pregnant and take significant time off from work than their male counterparts. What ranking system could negate the difference that results from men working x hours more per year? Is that desirable or fair?

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I am really not interested in a new first-principles explication of the inferiority of women as a workforce demographic in the tech industry. Sorry.

Your comment seems unfairly antagonistic. I'm talking about a well documented phenomenon. Men typically work more hours than women. One of the reasons is pregnancy and maternity leave.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/mobile/time-spent-working-...

If men work more hours, shouldn't you expect ranking systems to consistently favor men? You can try to pretend like this observation is sexist, but you're just refusing to answer the argument by doing so. Please, explain why I'm wrong and I'll happily change my mind.

I don't think women are inferior. I think they work less, because that's what I've read. One reason they work less is because of pregnancy and maternity leave. Even when equal leave is offered to men, women tend to take more of it, which makes sense as women are the ones who are actually pregnant. So, given the equality of men and women, and that men tend to work more hours, ranking systems that measure by output should be expected to put men ahead of women on average.

I'm no more interested the second time than the first, sorry.

Do you comment on all topics you aren't interested in? Were you under the impression I was waiting to see if you were interested?

Your comments in this thread are unnecessary and inappropriate.

One in which men also get a reasonable amount of time off work to participate in the birth of their child?

Do you think men should be forced to take time off for paternity leave?

Why's it relevant? Why not just judge based on the employee's actual output? It's certainly conceivable that a talented and dedicated woman could both raise kids and simultaneously out-code her male colleagues.

Of course, but unless you think women are innately superior, wouldn't they be at a disadvantage because they work fewer hours? In other words, if your system is based on output, and men and women are equal, men should be expected to perform better because they work more hours.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/mobile/time-spent-working-...

Of course if a woman produces more output or is better, she should be paid more. My point is about how you should expect the average result to be in men's favor though, unless you think women are innately superior. If you work 8 hours a day and I work 9, I'll probably be ahead of you at the end of the year, unless you're a lot better.

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