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Comment by phinkle | Hacker News Reader

I really hope that some day there is an all female or at least half female hacker house. I really like the idea of a hacker house and love being around smart tech people but some guys don't know how to act around women (I'm sorry but there are guys like that out there and many of them are hackers). It is even worse if you are one of the only single woman in a close community. I've heard from male friends that live in hacker houses that I would feel uncomfortable even though I am a relatively reasonable person and am used to living in messy spaces with other people. Also its nice to be around other women in case you need an emergency tampon or advice on whether you should wear your pumps or your wedges or want to bitch about what its like to be a female hacker.

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I find the assumption that girls are less messy than boys kind of naive and stereotypical. I suppose messy is ambiguous, does it mean clean or organized?

I remember living in the dorms my first year of college, and I was amused to note that the average boys dorm room was more organized and the average girls dorm room was cleaner. Of course, that is just my experience.

I find women are messier but also clean more. So more stuff left lying around but less grime. Where as guys will put stuff away but won't even know if there is a mop in the house.

Completely generalising here based on my own experiences.

What's a mop?

Not sure if you are just proving my point but here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mop

If you are living in a house with 10+ people then it is going to be messy (messy being unclean at times) and if you can't handle that then you shouldn't live in a hacker house whether you are a girl or a guy. I was trying to make the point that I am a pretty chill person and wouldn't mind a mess yet people still tell me not to live in a hacker house.

I've been living in a hacker house in Palo Alto for ~5 months now. There has been at least one female resident the entire time I've been there. None have ever complained about the messiness or behavior of the male inhabitants. On the contrary, we all get along well and if anything the woman have been more tolerant than average of others' messes and disorganization (probably just a coincidence).

In talking with my roommates about other hacker houses they've lived in, nobody has ever mentioned problems with men treating women improperly. I visited one of the houses in SF that was ~30% women and it seemed like everybody got along well and cleaned up after themselves.

The only material gender difference that has come up for us is that men are generally heavier so they make more noise when they walk around barefoot.

Your anecdote is helpful, but it's worth keeping in mind that just because "None has ever complained" doesn't mean that they didn't experience problems. Hopefully, they didn't; but they may have, and simply felt uncomfortable bringing them up.

As a guy, I'd love to live in a 50:50 gender ratio house with smart, creative folks. Had that experience in college living in the student cooperatives; was a great time, with lots of creative energy and many lifelong friendships formed. Would be great to do it again as an adult. Living together in a cozy house with 10-40 other people sure beats lounging around in a dank apartment by your lonesome self.

I agree that the gender split is very important, as it fundamentally changes the feel of the environment. I wouldn't want to live in a house with mostly guys, I don't think.

It makes me happy that the other replies point to these kinds of houses existing, but I kind of feel like I'm not "hacker" enough to look for a place like this yet. (Only one tiny project finished & for sale, no startups or anything to my name. Also, I'm hella lazy with my projects! Not sure how much this matters to these hackerhouses, but, well, they have "hacker" in the name, so...)

Arrangements like this exist in Japan: http://www.social-apartment.com/pages/en_home. I think it's a great concept. Dorms for young adults.

It'll never happen if everyone just hopes as we do. Take your idea, use it to inspire yourself, and if you have the chance... Make it happen. I'm sure there are many individuals that will appreciate and welcome your idea.

Is that the meat space equivalent of telling grandparent to submit a pull request or something?

I've stayed in several hackerhouses where women peacefully coexisted with men... not a single issue. If someone is acting weird, tell the homeowner.

My experience has actually been the opposite! Most hacker houses I've lived in have been run by women and seem especially friendly and welcoming to women residents.

That's really awesome! Maybe I am looking at the wrong hacker houses. Which ones did you stay in?

I don't want to give away all my secret spaces :). Feel free to email me (email's in profile).

I spent four months in a hacker house that was run by two women; for about half of that stay the house was at least half female. Eventually people rotated out and in and the ratio skewed towards being more male, though.

I tend to agree that a lot of guys don't know how to act around women. And I would suggest that some improvements to how we train men to behave could be made. Generally speaking it takes years to properly train a man to behave appropriately so this may seem like a daunting task. However, if it isn't done we have situations like you've mentioned where men don't act appropriately and fine women like yourself are forced to not participate.

>some guys don't know how to act around women (I'm sorry but there are guys like that out there and many of them are hackers)

How is a guy supposed to act around women? And why would they need to act differently around women than around men?

In many cases the problem is that the guy acts _too_ differently towards women than men.

There are all female houses on airbnb, but I'm not sure if they'd qualify as hacker houses. Given that it's SF, I'd guess that that a large amount work in tech though.

Or a mixed-race house. Let's be the melting pot America was supposed to be.

Integration through segregation.

Your comment assuming that a woman is cleaner than a man, just because she is a woman, is the most sexist I will probably read today.

Some people don't really understand what's the meaning of feminism.

But reading your comment again, I think you were just trolling.

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