[sordina]

The point is valid, but this obviously puts organisations trying to recruit their first female employees in a bit of a pickle. For the benefit of the common good (getting more small businesses and startups to hire more women) it might be better to asses a business's desired trajectory rather than its current state... right?

[morgante]

Exactly.

I've definitely interviewed female candidates for a small startup where they decided not to proceed once they found out they'd be the first woman on the team. I certainly don't hold it against them, but it really does make increasing diversity a lot harder if nobody is willing to be the first one.

It's a great example of how hard it can be to change the trajectory of systems even when everyone earnestly works towards change.

[Eridrus]

Have you considered asking them to help you recruit another woman from among their connections for your other open positions?

I don't know how well it would work, but it's an idea...

[morgante]

At the time we were only hiring a single engineer, but that's definitely a good suggestion.

[tomp]

Well I guess it's a good thing you avoided a few very sexist candidates...

[acaciapalm]

I wish I could say I'm a perfect martyr for the feminist cause, but I'm not.

I'd rather have a happy and productive career than an ugly sexual harassment and wrongful termination suit.

[josephg]

Huh - I wonder if you could use that as leverage during pay negotiation.

"Oh, you don't have any other women on staff? You need to know that thats going to be sort of rough for me, in complicated gross ways. I'll still do it, but only if you pay me an extra 10% compensation pay on top of what you were otherwise going to pay me. (Which you can stop doing as soon as you hire another woman)."

[jschwartzi]

As a man, this would make me extremely uncomfortable for a lot of reasons. Not the least of which because it implies to me that you think all men are scummy creeps and that you need extra money to deal with us.

[danielheath]

That's a hell of a reach from what she said, to put it mildly. To justify your inference she would need to be asking for extra money for dealing with any men, ever.

[67726e]

I feel like that's just going to get them to retract their offer in a lot of cases.

[tomp]

Isn't it sexist to pay someone differently (more in this case) just because of their gender?

[sordina]

Completely agree. This stance clearly makes sense from any individual's perspective.