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Comment by nickthemagicman | Hacker News Reader

I'm really happy this position was given to a chick. Hopefully inspire more girls to enter tech and help to mitigate the sausage fest that is the technology industry.

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I'm really happy this position was given to a women.

Can we please not use a term like "Chick" to refer to a person who holds a position in the white house?

I'm really happy this position was given to a woman.

As am I! Its the only way we as a society can move past stuff like this.

I think we aren't past it until we express delight in credentials and achievements, and not gender. We shouldn't be happy that a woman got the position, we should be happy that a qualified person did.

In the long list of terms used to refer to individuals who are in the White House, "chick" is pretty tame.

Her sex has nothing to do with this and I was hoping that for once the HN thread wouldn't involve either side of the debate.

No kidding. I would simply hope that the best PERSON for the job was appointed to the position, gender (or race, religion or sexual orientation for that matter) be damned.

I do find it mildly interesting that both the CTO and National Coordinator for Health IT roles recently went to females for the first time. Both are incredibly deserving on their own merit, and I can't wait for the time when this isn't the first thing to be mentioned.

Don't doubt for a second that being a woman helped her secure this position. Absolutely every decision made at this level is covered from all political perspectives. To assert otherwise is either hopelessly naive or intellectually dishonest.

It's a little tone deaf to talk about inspiring women to enter tech while calling them "chicks" and "girls".

I thought "chick" was the female version of "dude". I guess it could be "dudette" but that just seems dumb.

Maybe in surf culture when used by your friends, but from a stranger and especially in a professional context it's a diminutive that comes across as dismissive.

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