My mom sent me a snippet of this article, which was quoted in the WSJ last week. She was all, "I don't agree, but I thought you might want to see this..." Right she was...it got my blood boiling.
The “women in tech” experiment has been a disaster. [...] It all comes down to one, dirty little secret. Whisper it. The tech industry is not sexist.Tech isn't sexist? Most individuals I've met in tech aren't sexist, but some are, just like in any industry. It's harder to see when you're not the recipient of the bias, but it certainly exists. Additionally, I have my own sexist moments, so how could others who have not thought as long and hard about women in tech not have sexists moments?
Okay, so assume tech doesn't have any more sexist individuals than any other industry. There is still an huge issue that Yiannopoulos doesn't even consider: that the culture is sexist.
He might be right not because women aren't good at tech, but because the culture is insular and demanding, and many women (via nurture or nature) want to do stuff outside of work. But, even if he is right, I want him to prove it, because it's ludicrous for anyone to pull a statement like that out of nowhere. I'm doing my best not to degrade into a fit of profanity.
That's right. A culture that encourages starting work at 10am, taking long lunch breaks, and playing pinball mid-day means that you basically spend all day at the office. Why is that sexist? Because there's pressure from (some of) the rest of society for women to have kids, clean house, and be home to make dinner. I'm not saying women should feel pressure to do those things, and so our general society's culture can be fixed too. But it should be a lot easier to change the beneficent tech industry to be more flexible rather than the other way around.
For each of the four industry jobs I've had, my daily start and end times have been earlier than the average employee. I was usually one of the few who cooked their own dinner, let alone packed the occasional lunch. The stereotypical mother and wife norms clash with the norms of tech employees. A lot of women want jobs where they can do homework with their kids, go out to a bar to meet someone after work, or hang out with friends not related to work.
So when our Mr. Yiannopoulos might actually be right when he says things like the following.
For each of the four industry jobs I've had, my daily start and end times have been earlier than the average employee. I was usually one of the few who cooked their own dinner, let alone packed the occasional lunch. The stereotypical mother and wife norms clash with the norms of tech employees. A lot of women want jobs where they can do homework with their kids, go out to a bar to meet someone after work, or hang out with friends not related to work.
So when our Mr. Yiannopoulos might actually be right when he says things like the following.
Of course, the number of women in tech will never be the same as the number of men, because most women simply don’t want to do these sorts of jobs.
There are a lot of reasons for fewer women in tech, and the answer to many of them is to break the stereotypes that perpetuate the issues, which isn't just about fixing the numbers in schools and watching it propagate, as Yiannopoulos naïvely suggests. Women need role models and other women at the top to both show that it can be done and to help make the policies so that it can be done with greater ease.
The article isn't all bad; in fact the most interesting point is that underrepresented racial minorities and socio-economic groups deserve more air time, which is very true. That doesn't mean that women deserve less, though. If anything, women are even more underrepresented in those groups. By evening out the playing field for all women, it also helps other minority groups, not to mention roughly half of the population.
In addition, the minorities that are most underrepresented, in my opinion, share many stereotypes in common with those for women: being family-focused is an easy example. By making the tech industry more appealing for one category of minority, we're widening the door for everyone.
The article isn't all bad; in fact the most interesting point is that underrepresented racial minorities and socio-economic groups deserve more air time, which is very true. That doesn't mean that women deserve less, though. If anything, women are even more underrepresented in those groups. By evening out the playing field for all women, it also helps other minority groups, not to mention roughly half of the population.
In addition, the minorities that are most underrepresented, in my opinion, share many stereotypes in common with those for women: being family-focused is an easy example. By making the tech industry more appealing for one category of minority, we're widening the door for everyone.
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