Hacker News Reader

Comment by cm2012 | Hacker News Reader

cm2012

Is it possible that professional women are more abrasive than men in aggregate? I am not saying that is the case, only that it is another hypothesis from the data. If that was the case and I had to guess a reason, it would be that groups with more power insecurity tend to overcompensate in other areas.

Another explanation could be industry. More women work in Fashion and marketing, which have generally more dramatic environments.

View on HN

This could also be the result of misapplying articles such as this one (http://www.rolereboot.org/culture-and-politics/details/2014-...) where women are taught to be dominant, and say things like "Stop interrupting me", and "I just said that". [Said article was making the rounds on Facebook among my professional female friends recently.]

Topics tend to be rehashed quite a lot in discussion, and sometimes people interrupt one another. It is entirely plausible that this probably affects women more than men. But if someone compensates by saying things like "I just said that", or "Stop interrupting me.", it is not surprising that they would get reviews that label them as abrasive; whereas they might just be trying to be more assertive than usual by following this sort of advice too literally.

Solutions? Perhaps a more holistic approach, where all parties involved are reminded that women might be less assertive, or be dominated in the conversation, and take steps to mitigate this. (Or possibly also being reminded that speaking is not

It's possible. It's equally possible that there's a lot of men who like to dish it out but can't take it.I used to do a lot of work with hedge funds and the amount of preening and effort invested in maintaining the pecking order (in an all-male environment) was just ridiculous.

"More women work in Fashion and marketing, which have generally more dramatic environments."

Do you have data on this?

Data point: My girlfriend is a tech designer who's worked at Guess, Hot Topic, and a slew of smaller companies. She absolutely loathes the working environment because of the drama and bitterly regrets getting into the industry. She's considering going into customer service in a call center(!) (a 50%+ pay cut) because the work environments are so stressful in the fashion industry. She explicitly blames it on the gender balance being so female-dominated.

So, anecdotal. Got it.

But let's say we accept it. We still need data on the "relative drama" of male-dominated industries. And considering this includes industries like finance, law and policing, I think you might be surprised what the answer turns out to be.

Yes. She may just be seeing the grass as greener on the other side. There's been drama to an absurd degree between men at places that I've worked.

It's possible, but the likelihood is so low some might wonder why you're bringing that possibility up rather than discuss the much more likely alternative and how we can fix it.

Also; "I asked men and women in tech if they would be willing to share their reviews for a study and didn’t stipulate anything else."

Why do you think the likelihood is very small?

Has there been research?

Groups who are or expect to be treated differently will behave differently. Groups who are specifically taught to behave differently will also behave differently.

Are both of those really that unlikely?

We have arguments here all the time about perceived vs actual sexism or the effects of cultural gender norms, and have female-specific business self-help books.

I think there's certainly a likelihood that men and women are different, and that not every perceived difference is sexism.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com