Could the guys on this thread please stop it with the "pipeline" discussion?! Few women actually cite that to be an issue. It's distracting. Listen more, talk less.
35 karma · joined May 21, 2014
The below article is a superb read, and I highly encourage as a more complete view on the subject.
Not a conversation I think is worth wasting time or energy on, when a beautiful day and so many other things are just bigger priorities. Macro point: efforts to qualify "normal" in specified groups w/in sociology, are dangerous. Especially for young people on the shit end of that 'normal' stick (in this case, women) the damage far outweighs any possible benefits that you or others could reap from the research.
Black people are dumber than white people, per their DNA—haven't you heard? So claimed the scientist who stole another's work to claim the Nobel (and by coincidence, a woman who'd died years previously was the OG scientist—not verified until years later): http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/james-watson-profi...
Stay away from seeking to validate divisive science that normalizes bad social behavior. It benefits nobody, outside of other scientists seeking such studies as chain-links in more socially beneficial work.
Ethics matter. Live it, breathe it, or please exit the entrepreneur and/or science communities.
I am a mechanic and a gearhead. A former motorcycle racer, with a pixie physique. An ice hockey player, and a robotics hobbiest. Your praised research has shaped society to present me and others like me with far more barriers, than it has presented to anyone, benefits with any kind.
Hence: my assertion that your evangelism of this research as anything positive. Share some Eugenics research, why not?
Social consequences from non-scientific interpretstions of scientific work, are more often than not dangerous. Leave the science to the scientists, and be a human engaged with other humans as we choose to co-exist.
Anybody who does not think this is a significant problem, has no business participating in the creation of products for any human to usw in their lives. None.
Frankly: if the dynamic between two individuals is as such, that for one to walk into a room has been plainly stated to violate the imposed boundaries of another, THAT is harassment. Textbook. Harassment. That's what restraining orders are for.
MIT (and all academic institutions) reviews cases in private. Behind closed doors. The same way the court system works. They make and deliver a judgement, after reviewing evidence. Doing so, protects the victims/claimants in cases. It's NOT "MIT is satisfied a person broke the policy," it's "MIT took time to review a complaint, deemed it was valid, and took action."
Filing a complaint RARELY means punishment will happen. Especially in situations of sexual harassment. In my case, my professor was never even admonished.
Grow. Up.
Students look up to their professors. Being persued sexually by one is more demoralizing than almost anything else, and humiliating. Very, very humiliating. Especially when being offered preferential treatment in class, that's unwanted, has been rebuffed, and is being spectated and/or resented by fellow classmates.
You really think transparency for the court of public opinion is more important in the interest of the professor's reputation (with a naieve assumption the professor wasn't doing anything he'd be humilliated by, should those allegations go public), than it is to protect the victim—who's ALREADY been through a humilliating, self-esteem erroding ordeal?!
Problems that are also in part born from young STEM academic over-achievers leaping from mid-degree coursework, and into the fast-paced world of startuptopia. The gap skipped over, is that one of the slower, social & personal-growth experience college life rigors our emotional skills through. That humanities coursework gives us tools of insight into the human condition, to work from. That shitty part-time jobs in food service or retail, teach us how to have a work ethic and value the work of others, through all involved parties being paid degradingly low wages, doing shit work for uncaring managers, but then relishing what little bits of wonder the crappy paychecks make possible after all the personal-growth the humbling work done for them, made subconsciously possible.
We need to all pause from the hustle and bustle of doing things as quickly as possible and with as much risk and for as much money as we each feel we can shoulder. We need to make room to prioritize mindfulness, listening, and just simple human humility. It's not all about people like us. Or, them. We are in this, together.
He who dies with the most toys, is simply dead. Not winning.
I've been doing research (through many methods) as a UX'er, for years. You're correct, the very personal stuff, is best done in a 1:1 interview.
It's rare for researchers to present a hypothesis to research subjects, before conducting the requisite study.
My four questions are pretty broad/basic, and they map well to my startup's purpose... which is being in the biz, of closing workplace inequality gaps and making workplace cultures more adaptive and welcoming to folks from all walks of life.
That should be plenty, to assuage worriers of my potentially nefarious corporate goals. If it's not, those folks should really go outside and enjoy a sunny day, sometime soon. Or, several.
I'm a UX'er by trade, a self-taught mechanic/builder by hobby, and languages are my achilles heel with learning. So, I've taken A LOT of flack for many years, for not learning how to code, beyond my basic understanding of how things all fit together, need to support each other, and being able to edit other peoples HTML/CSS.
As a solo-founder however, it's all on me to deliver. Advisors and investors have (as gently as possible) told me that.
https://generalassemb.ly/ is expensive, but it's done a great job in a classroom setting, teaching app frameworks basics to n00bs. When I have the money and the bandwidth, I'm looking forward to taking it. Then there's also https://www.hackerschool.com/about, which is a paid retreat, so expensive on many levels.
I was really impressed with the codeacademy.com experience, and it filled-in many blanks for me that made me feel competent in CSS and HTML, for the first time ever. Using Javascript with JQuery is going to be a much more daunting challenge, because its entire mental model I still don't grok.
But, I'm trying, anyway. I managed to get one critical JQuery piece to work, and the other—I gave-up on but am coding the page, anyway with a static stand-in. I figure that once I've gotten all of the HTML and CSS and what of the JQuery I could do, done, at that point it will be easier to get friends to help me patch the holes. If not, then I will just pay a freelance Javascript person, to spend a day patching holes (and I honestly don't see what holes there will be, taking a day). Remember: Minimum Viable Product, doesn't' need to be fancy. :)
From, a gal who's gone-in kicking and screaming with every bit of learning code... but will probably be a more well rounded CEO, for it.
In a social context, a woman cam be a "girl." In business, she's a woman. Always. Period. This is a business matter, where personal stuff got inappropriately smeared-in to the business, which is the premise of the lawsuit.
Guys: We don't call you boys at work. Woman, please please please.
One founder was removed from the "Founder's Suite," because it was believed that having a woman as a founder would work against the company's valuation/brand-equity. That is black and white sexual harassment. It is discrimination based on gender. Period.
Secondly: Founders date. Employees date. Subordinates and Managers, date. It happens. It's not "should they," it's that "they do" and there are appropriate methods to mitigate this. What is personal, is personal—and what is professional, is professional.
HR departments have methods to mitigate this. Startups being "above" or "too cool" to engage HR professionals early in their lifecycles, are to blame for most of these kinds of problems. GitHub, now Tinder, and many others I can't think of off the top of my head. HR exists to keep the personal, personal—and the professional, professional.
There is NO blame for a relationship going sour, at the professional level. None. Our industry has a ways to go. We all need to be in on that, together.