Hacker News Reader

you don't, but when unspecified with "as a woman.." I'm guessing people in the tech community are generally just assumed to be men since that's the majority

View on HN

As a woman...

we have a secret: a lot of us also choose to "hide" behind gender-neutral usernames. It's a thing that makes life easier on the internet.

I agree! Although I have my real first name in my user name, no one will know if I am a women as this is an Indian name and most of the world doesn't know if it's a male or a female name.

I always suspected so :) Really hope that some day it won't be necessary anymore.

Well shit. As a man, I have to admit that I do this more than I'd like to admit. My assumption still tends to be that a comment is by a man. I'm not sure if that's statistically likely to be true, but I have to admit that I do.

EDIT: and that's coming from someone who is actively trying to be more sensitive in these matters.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com