MIT Computer Scientists Demonstrate the Hard Way That Gender Still Matters

If someone did a 'gay computer scientist' AMA I'd be interested because it's a specific person talking about their experiences - just like most AMAs are. If someone asked why that mattered - I would really wonder why they bothered to click - just move on. I'm very interested in what women at MIT experience so the fact that people were so aggressive about a headline does point out a gender issue. And maybe the question is a real one. Maybe they really don't understand that women have different experiences in the science/tech field than men. If you care at all to have more women speaking out about their experiences in tech and on reddit, than telling them they're doing it wrong is probably not going to help.

I think people are incorrectly reacting to you questioning "does [gender] really [matter]?" It appears to me that you are questioning "does [the AMA] really [show]?"

I think you made sound questions in a civil way. I don't see why you should be downvoted. But HN is fickle at times.

I thought exactly the same thing.

Their complaints fall into two: 1) People questioned why they brought up being female 2) Trolls asked stupid/offensive questions

We can all quickly agree on #2. It's 100% unacceptable but simply reflects (as you pointed out) that certain % of population are assholes, not widespread gender issue.

However - #1 seems valid to me. In the words of supreme court justice Roberts - "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race". Ie if you want people to stop discriminating on the basis of gender, stop making it a deal.

One may agree or disagree with this logic - but it's silly to point at it as example of 'gender discrimination'. YOU may want to make your gender an issue, but others' not wishing to join you in it doesn't mean anything.

I am unable to copy and paste, but the article quotes a comment from reddit where someone pointed out that when someone included "I'm a male dog groomer" in their AMA, no one asked "Why does your gender matter?" So I think that is evidence that there is a double standard here.

As a woman who spends some time on HN, my experience is that, yeah, my gender is a problem here. Most men do not want to network with me. If I try to network, it seems to be interpreted as me hitting on them or threatening their relationship or something. Maybe I just do not know how to network. That's entirely possible. But I have done some of the same things that I have seen men here comment positively on that other men have done -- such as try to be emotionally supportive when someone is having a bad day -- and, coming from me, it is apparently interpreted completely differently. So far, Hacker News has essentially failed as a networking opportunity for me. I know for a fact other people have used it successfully that way. So I know it is not simply me wildly misunderstanding what the site is good for or something like that.

I am willing to consider the possibility that I am simply doing something wrong that compounds the problem. But I have had people try to tell me that my gender is not relevant to my failure in that regard and I am not buying it. I have been a member for more than 5 years. By now, I should have a few contacts from here, even after accounting for this, that and the other obstacle. But, I don't.

I think much of this behavior is due to people's young age, and the complete lack of understanding of what sexism is. I often see people here on HN confuse sexism (which is a systemic, often cultural discrimination against women, usually with no malice involved) with misogyny (disdain or contempt towards women). They fail to realize that most of us are sexist without realizing it, and that doesn't mean we're evil -- just a product of an unfair society. Instead of listening and trying to find hidden biases (which are sometimes as interesting to spot as a well-hidden bug in a program) they start getting defensive, and quickly progress from sexism to outright misogyny.

It's pretty educational. Very few people on this site fall into racist, sexist, homophobic patterns. We would like to believe cops are mostly good. But...

If you want to be horrified by what cops really think, go to a cop discussion board.

If you want your image of a post-racial America shattered, go to Facebook and search for Ferguson.

If you want to find out if there is still a big huge problem with sexism in the tech industry, do a Reddit AMA.

> You are a neanderthal

I'm not quite sure whether that remark is racist or speciest, but as someone whose DNA is 3.3% Neanderthal according to 23andMe testing, I say screw you either way.

>Who cares what is between your legs when your contribution is a gift from the heart and mind.

How ironic when that is the exact statement they are complaining about in the first place.

It will certainly take more than referring to men as "people" when what is actually meant is "men", the perpetrators of the abuse you refer to.

It seems they've missed the opportunity to put up a "We are n male CS students AUA" some weeks before, then the comparison would have been better.

I think not many people would oppose that statement. Where opinions differ is whether one or the other sex is given an advantage in a particular subject/area of life.