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Comment by anextio | Hacker News Reader

> The gender battle has existed for as long as we have. An unending competition as to which sex is better. This is no different, we're just changing the rules and bringing in a few different twists with this contest.

Wow. No thank you.

This kind of thing might be fun and innocent if we were not already living in an industry rife with sexism, inequality, and bro-culture rudeness.

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I do agree, but also feel like ANYTHING AT ALL to encourage more women to join in on things like this is a good thing.

Sometimes people need a sense of competition to step up to the plate.

But yea... This is a little too close to being distasteful, considering the way things are. Its a slippery slope though.

> I do agree, but also feel like ANYTHING AT ALL to encourage more women to join in on things like this is a good thing.

Why assume the only effect could be a positive one? It's possible for an idea to discourage women from joining in on things, and furthermore encourage women who've already joined in to feel demotivated. This seems like it might well be one of those ideas.

Also, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politicians_syllogism.

I can't speak for all women, but as a female developer, I definitely find this event discouraging. I hate being seen as "female dev" instead of just a dev. The last thing I want to do is go to an event that is based on this distinction and could possibly be used as evidence that I am less skilled at my job because of my gender. This is why I only feel truly comfortable at all-women hackathons. It's the only place where I can believe with reasonable certainty that if I mess up it won't lead to a generalization like this: http://xkcd.com/385/

> feel like ANYTHING AT ALL to encourage more women to join in on things like this is a good thing

Not really, unconsidered, blunt, ignorant attempts are as likely to as much damage as they would good.

That is NOT encouragement in any way. a)I appreciate competition as motivation and this ain't it; I prefer competing in such arenas as a person, not as a woman. b) And for other women whom may cite intimidation as one of the issues that keeps them out of tech fields, this is hardly a way to lure them in.

Agreed. I'm a woman and my first thought on sighting this was "Really? Are we seriously on this bullshit?" When I found out it was a woman behind it, I was even more disgusted. I notice she's backpedaled and the poster has been altered, post twitter uproar.

Maybe the top prize could be that everyone has to read Difference and Dominance.

Its like you took the words out of my fingers.

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