[moi2388]

And as usual no data other than opinions.

How many women did they have with the same qualifications as the men? How many women work the same amount of hours? How many women even applied for the job?

My local kindergarten also only has women. Guess why?

[mjbeswick]

It's not really about equality, as no one is complaining about men doing the most dangerous and laborious jobs, as mining, forestry, saturation diving etc. According to most reports, men are more than 20 times more likely to die at work.

[mc32]

People need to be less outraged. Look at the situation and figure out what would allow the UK/EU to get on par with the US in terms of AI.

If diversity would achieve it, then do that, if homogeneity would achieve that, then do that.

Personally, I think they need to figure out what their main goal is. Is it diversification in this one area, or is it parity/supremacy in this one area and then go from there. One cannot serve two masters.

[jessekv]

Could it be because the lack of representation in leadership roles is self-perpetuating?

[bavell]

That's a stretch! It's common knowledge women are more nurturing than men, especially with regards to children.

[jessekv]

Plenty of men are also nurturing by nature. I am not, unfortunately. It is a trait I am working to cultivate in myself in order to perform my leadership roles more effectively.

[hagbard_c]

Plenty, yes, but more women than men on average. There's plenty of women who are interested in fiddling with engines and hardware and things that go boom but on average more men than women are interested in such things. This does not sit well with some ideologues who insist that preferences are 100% nurture instead of nature in combination with nurture but that should be their problem, not ours. Unfortunately many of those ideologues have made it to positions in society where they have the power to make their problem ours as well which leads to situations like these.

The solution is clear: get the ideologues out of positions of power and replace them with more level-headed people. Speak up when confronted with or by such ideologues, don't be cowed by the labels they're wont to attach to detractors as they're only words which have been appropriated with their original meaning twisted or lost to suit the ideologue's purposes. The ideologues gain their power from the strength of those words which means that power can be taken away from them as well through the effort of taking back the language they misappropriated.

[chabes]

> My local kindergarten also only has women. Guess why?

You are comparing two completely different things as if they are related.

Is there something about computers and AI that men have a knack for?

As usual, we have men outraged about a more even playing field.

[stormfather]

"Results showed that the male infants showed a stronger interest in the physical-mechanical mobile while the female infants showed a stronger interest in the face. The results of this research clearly demonstrate that sex differences are in part biological in origin."

- Sex differences in human neonatal social perception, Connellan Et. Al.

Boys are more interested in things, girls are more interested in people. Men preferentially grow up to work with things, women preferentially grow up to work with people. It's not about skill, its about what they instinctually find interesting.

[beej71]

As these are management jobs referred to in TFA, it seems then women would be more qualified, yes?

[stormfather]

What is TFA?

And my answer depends. I think that its hard to be an effective engineering manager without first working hard at being an engineer and learning all about it. I think a prerequisite for that is someone who is naturally passionate about engineering. But then on top of that interpersonal skills are important. So you could say that on average men and women both have their respective advantageous biases for engineering management, but the pool from which they're drawn skews heavily male because not too many women go into engineering in the first place.

[Terretta]

The field can be perfectly even. If you have 15 guys and 5 girls enter the field, you'll find more men attain the goal.

So: “Solve the problem at the left.”†

This means for most leverage, meaning best results with least cost and least waste, intervene in a system at the earliest stage that can make a difference.

† The metaphor is assuming production lines flow left to right. RTL cultures can say "solve the problem at the right" which has the advantage of both metaphor and pun!

[mc32]

But you seem to be arguing for a less even playing field, no? Even means playing no favorites and only going by who might be best suited for the job. If there is someone better suited for the job and, in this case, she, who is she? Maybe another AI aspirant can hire her.

[chabes]

Don’t need to feign ignorance here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_workforce

[mc32]

What's that got to do with the price of tea in China?

If NYC and SF are having crime issues it does not mean Greenwich, Connecticut should ramp up its police force to make up for NYCs and SFs deficiencies.

[noahwhygodwhy]

Are you suggesting men aren't qualified to take care of children?