This is still blaming nerds for something they really can't do anything about.
There's really a gap between "scientific surveys" and the terrain I've seen. In my last project as contractor there were 9 male/developers and 4 females with a management title. The meantime-to-management I've seen is 2 years after graduation for women, 7 years for males. All 15% females of my 150-student class are now in management positions, 10 years after IT master's degree, and only 50% of the male students. If a women really wants to know what discrimination is, just step in as a male.
I've left companies where I wasn't promoted and created my startup 3 years ago. Sounds like my skills weren't the problem: I'm doing better than seasoned product managers who left the same company and created startups in my field, so as a developer I'm better at product management than my previous employer foresaw. But it sure seemed very important to my previous employer to promote a female team lead.
Maybe it made more sense for the business to have you as a developer writing code and her as a manager rather than you as a manager and her writing code?
Then it wouldn't be a problem that there are few women writing software, wouldn't it? Because .. maybe it just makes sense?
No that is NOT my opinion, I just want to highlight the logic flaw I see here. You cannot say that the same thing (underrepresentation) is a problem in one case and not in the other, that's just .. weird.
Well he ended up leaving, so they didn't get him as a developer either. That's a significant catch 22 in a lot of these companies.
There's no path for promotion beyond "developer" without becoming a manager, but then you're not doing the work you're great at, so there's a disincentive to promote you, but the developers want to have career growth, so they get restless and eventually leave the company for a different one, usually getting a salary boost but possibly still being stuck as a 'developer' because they saw no advancement at their previous company.
I'm struggling through a similar situation now, although I have project management and team lead experience, I was never officially promoted because they were small companies and didn't want to bump my salary (or believed they had a flat heirarchy and "titles were meaningless").
It's 3 companies. Truth is, I don't mind having them as managers as long as promotion is fair and as long as I learn how to become a manager. Which I didn't either.
So true. There was a funny skit on SNL where Tom Brady and another guy said the exact same things and Tom was welcomed while the other guy was creepy and hit with a lawsuit.
Not in this case. I was friends with her. I never witnessed anything disrespectful and she spoke regularly with most of the classmates. Perhaps flocked was a bad word - but let's just say it was obvious that she was getting a lot of attention initially for the fact that she was the only female.
Assuming they were being creepy or coming on hard to her because they took interest is just wrong. I think it could be intimidating for some women in a similar situation but that's normal if you're extremely outnumbered. I was offered a job at a women's fashion company once. It was a little intimidating with the sheer number of beautiful women, the different culture and the tiny tech team. I didn't take the job because they didn't have a proper budget, not because I felt women were making me uncomfortable. They weren't.
When you're around a lot of similar people, it's refreshing to work with someone with a different background. People are naturally curious. Did some talk to her because they thought she was cute? Perhaps, but that's not a crime. My point was that I don't believe male programmers are exclusive of women and programmers are merit-based people at heart. They want to work with women. There's just not many of them.
This is just my experience, but I've been in several industries and the only thing I've ever witnessed in tech was one guy who was mildly creepy with another female employee and she was friends with him. In other industries like hospitality and real estate - they are tightly controlled by men and there's a lot of obvious sexism and I've seen several sexual harassment claims. Yet, there are a lot more women in them than tech.
Is it unimaginable that this might be uncomfortable?
Is is unimaginable that this might not? Maybe because it was made respectfully and in a friendly manner? Could the fact that the person telling it didn't mention any rejection mean that this was the case? Why are we talking in questions all the time?
There's really a gap between "scientific surveys" and the terrain I've seen. In my last project as contractor there were 9 male/developers and 4 females with a management title. The meantime-to-management I've seen is 2 years after graduation for women, 7 years for males. All 15% females of my 150-student class are now in management positions, 10 years after IT master's degree, and only 50% of the male students. If a women really wants to know what discrimination is, just step in as a male.
I've left companies where I wasn't promoted and created my startup 3 years ago. Sounds like my skills weren't the problem: I'm doing better than seasoned product managers who left the same company and created startups in my field, so as a developer I'm better at product management than my previous employer foresaw. But it sure seemed very important to my previous employer to promote a female team lead.