[mamoswined]

Being female, and a developer, and having worked in several other fields, I think people overestimate the sexism in tech and underestimate it elsewhere. I'm ashamed to say I was one of the "who needs feminism?" women in my late teens and early twenties because I have had a good experience in tech. Then I took a journalism job...and actually experienced it for myself and saw so many other women experience it.

Sexism is everywhere, at least in tech there is a fair amount of awareness that it's at least an issue. In writing I found it was just taken for granted.

And in writing/journalism I found it way more depressing to see SO many women as a total percentage of the profession and then the gender breakdown of the people in charge. In tech there aren't that many of us, but almost all the ones I know are in good positions.

[MollyR]

Interesting point, I had the vague feeling as well, that sexism in tech is much lower than other fields. I never really felt discriminated against in tech, people went out of their way to help me. Biology was a totally different story. I couldn't tell if it was cause I was a woman, or because I didn't have a md or phd.

[cableshaft]

According to my girlfriend (who's in corporate real estate), the sexism is pretty rampant in her field also, and some of the stories I've heard from her surprise the hell out of me, because I've never heard of anything that bad in tech.

Especially since most of it is perpetuated by people in management in her field, not young guys that don't really know how to communicate with anyone properly, let alone women, as it tends to be in tech fields.

[mamoswined]

I think one of the reasons sexism in tech gets so much press is paradoxically because developers/project managers/etc. are in such high demand. You can quit and write a Medium post about how awful your job was and still be able to get work. You have a ton of power in this way.

In real estate, journalism, PR, etc. it's so tight knit and competitive that speaking out can destroy your career. I merely quit a journalism job because of an awful EIC and didn't say anything publicly against him, but he was eventually fired and blamed me (though a lot of people had complained to HR about him and it wasn't just about sexism). I really doubt I could even freelance for many local publications because of it because they are all run by his friends and it's not that hard to find another writer.