Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by RougeFemme 4570 days ago
I'm a woman and I totally understand why another woman would want to know that. And when I've been part of an interview panel, the panel was asked that. I responded that we have a mix of genders and ethnicities.

On the flip side, I've never asked that when interviewing for a position myself, though I've always been curious; I just assumed that asking would blow my chances of getting the job. I've always assumed that the team would probably be all male. And that it could be OK for me either way, depending on the personalities and attitudes of the team.

1 comments

I'm a woman and I totally understand why another woman would want to know that.

Could you explain why?

I became curious after timr pointed out a comment asking about this.

I've worked on a number of teams that were all male - other than me, of course. In some cases, I had no issues related to the fact that I'm female. In other cases, I encountered males who assumed that I was incapable of performing the job, simply because I was female - and told me so. And even when I proved myself as capable as them - or more - I was constantly challenged/tested verbally on my technical capabilities in ways that the males were not. A few people continually told me that I was hired/retained/promoted simply because I was female. . .even after I had proven myself to be as capable - or more - than they.

That's quite a mental/emotion drain that males on all/predominantly male teams don't face - at least regarding their gender. And since all/predominantly female teams are rare in tech, it's a situation that male techies will rarely, if ever face, or even need to contemplate - at least regarding their gender.

So, I would be curious because I would wonder if I might encounter sexism on the team - sexism at a level that would drain/distract me. Well, I never let it distract me, but it was certainly draining.

> That's quite a mental/emotion drain that males on all/predominantly male teams don't face - at least regarding their gender.

There are million other ways to give somebody a hard time. There are people who just want to be assholes, they can accomplish that even if you are white male.

> So, I would be curious because I would wonder if I might encounter sexism on the team - sexism at a level that would drain/distract me. Well, I never let it distract me, but it was certainly draining.

What about sexism from women towards men? is that okay?