[arbitrage]

> but in my experience recruiting, the primary reason behind there being less women getting hired into engineering roles is almost never raw sexism.

In my experience in the industry, this is a laughable statement to make. It's a shame that unless one is a victim of unconscious, systemic bias, one is so much less likely to acknowledge it as a problem, that actually exists, and hurts people all the time.

[komali2]

I don't understand what you're saying - is your argument that only victims of unconscious bias will recognize it as a problem?

If that's your point, I guess my counter argument is myself, not a victim, very aware of the problem, and acknowledging it as a problem as my post.

There's also the victims of conscious bias that would probably be able to acknowledge the problem...

Am I misreading your post?

[trustmath]

I don't believe in unconscious thought, but if unconscious thought were real, it would be obvious that the only people who can be aware of it's effects are the people who can identify a difference between those two states of being, and be able to reduce that down to an model/abstraction/statement.

It doesn't matter if it's intentional or not to a victim. It's still the same system, same cause and effect, same yield of powerlessness.

Whichever way you want to see it.

+ If it's intentional it's not unconscious.

+ If it's unconscious it's part of a culture that tolerates the behavior to the point that it doesn't get questioned.

+ If it does get questioned, eventually people are just playing dumb or it becomes intentional - if it's provable that it continues to occur.