Y Combinator’s Women-Only Forum Is Becoming Its Own Business | Hacker News Reader

Y Combinator’s Women-Only Forum Is Becoming Its Own Business

bloomberg.com

26 pointseastbaydev25 comments

This may be illegal in California. Discrimination on the basis of sex for events open to the public is forbidden. It’s quite broadly construed too, for example bars can’t legally have ladies night.

Edit: To clarify, a nonprofit women’s forum appears fine, but turning it into a business not so much.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unruh_Civil_Rights_Act

I don't know why so many commentators are taking a polar stance.

I sometimes hang out with people from my native country; that doesn't mean I'm unhappy with the USA or Americans born here. Some things still strike me as weird, and some things I do strike others as weird so it's occasionally nice to be immersed in a group of people who understand that.

And I come from an English-speaking country and am treated like a white male (not true for me as a kid before I came here). I think this phenomenon of sometimes stepping into a "subset community" would be far more useful for folks who don't fit that dominant model.

What’s more feminist, more female CEOs or eliminating CEOs entirely?

What’s the alternative? Make every decision by committee? Have shareholders vote on every decision? Randomly selected leader of the day? Have an AI run everything?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_cooperative

None of the women techies I know would be caught dead associating with something like this.

Or none of the women techies you know want to admit in front of you they want a place like this.

Not saying you don't know them, but I am saying that admitting to wanting to talk to other women has traditionally been admitting to weakness in the workplace.

None of them would be comfortable joining an organization that was about excluding others based on their demographics (e.g., race, gender, orientation, etc.). That's one of the reasons I hold them in high regard.

Hey look, I hear you, but why is this always the counter argument when women do this? Men have, in the past and present, held tight knit groups that may not be explicitly stating that women are excluded, but that aren’t supportive of women being in those groups.

If women felt liked they belonged in this industry, they wouldn’t form groups like this at all. Furthermore, don’t strawman them by saying you wouldn’t associate with those who would exclude based on gender, ethnicity, etc. The article clearly states that this is a place for women to seek advice and mentorship from one another. Please don’t bring any other factors into this when the article is clearly about a group that is accomplishing a well-meaning goal.

One group is saying they want equality and accuse the other of supporting the status quo if the other don't support single-sex organizations.

The other group is saying they want equally and accuse the first group of supporting discrimination for having single-sex organizations.

One can accuse the first group of assuming bad faith or the second group for building strawmen, but all that does is signaling which group one identify with. It is unclear how to find common ground when both groups clearly has the same goal but have polarized opinion in how to get there.

There has never been a time in my life when I would have considered joining such an organization, no matter how beneficial they might have been to me personally. I believe in the dream.

I'm not saying that they shouldn't be allowed--go for it--but I don't consider them ethical.

> Or none of the women techies you know want to admit in front of you they want a place like this.

Clearly some women don’t like places like that:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14702676

As I wrote in a comment on that story, I have a theory: Women-only groups aren’t just “Women-only”, they also exclude women with these beliefs [from the linked article]. But this is far from obvious, so women at these group gatherings see only themselves, and it becomes an echo chamber where they believe they represent all women’s views on this subject.

FWIW my girlfriend is pretty interested in this. And yes, I'd call her a techie: PhD in computer science, worked at Microsoft, FB, LinkedIn, and a bunch of smaller companies.

I’m interested in this too. My credentials aren’t nearly as amazing, but I’ve been in this industry a long while now and I think this is excellent.

https://outline.com/y9B7TH

a female only group is a rational response to a brogrammer culture. a desire for a femcentric branch forum {note i didnt say sub forum} is something that should be taken as a symptom of a systemic problem. women, are already segregated devalued and even attacked for thier gender, right here in SV, and right here in YC and HN. ostriches are not the only bird that thrust thier heads in the sand.

segregation has happened before.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Burning

Are you seriously condemning segregation while propping up a women-only group?

Also, Mississippi Burning? Do you not realize the extent of hyperbole in that comparison?

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