[learc83]

I've wondered that myself. There are plenty of other well paying jobs that are even more skewed than tech. Look at electricians, and plumbers to start.

I don't see a constant barrage of articles lamenting on the lack of women electricians.

[saraid216]

How many articles do you see about electricians to begin with?

[learc83]

I think that's the point. The reason you see articles lamenting the lack of women in tech is because tech is currently a sexy career, while electrician isn't.

My point is that if people really cared about improving women's lives, they'd be pushing for more women in skilled trades in addition to pushing for more women in tech.

Unlike software development, being an electrician require an apprenticeship instead of college. Apprenticeships are paid and therefore more accessible to people with lower incomes.

I'd argue that trying to improve the lives of less educated lower income women specifically is more beneficial than focusing on the smart, ambitious, college graduates (and future college graduates) who we are trying to entice into software development--women who would probably go on to high paying jobs in other fields anyway.

[geofft]

I'm a software engineer. I have a voice among software engineers, and not so much among electricians. I'll focus on the change that I have half a chance of making some progress on. I don't think this means that I don't really care about improving women's lives, any more than how, as a Linux user, me not writing Windows tutorials means I don't really care about improving user's lives.

Why aren't there analogous articles written by electricians? You'd have to ask the electricians.

[learc83]

>Why aren't there analogous articles written by electricians? You'd have to ask the electricians.

Software engineers aren't the ones writing these articles, and this is an article in Newsweek not a tech blog.

>I'll focus on the change that I have half a chance of making some progress on.

We're not talking about software engineers getting together and deciding to make our workplaces more hospitable to women (which I fully support). We're talking about people from outside singling us out for societal problems, while wrapping themselves in moral superiority.

This isn't bout helping women, it's about getting clicks by picking on an unpopular easy target. The same way we had articles blaming San Fransisco's housing prices on Google buses.

Again if they really cared about women, they'd be pushing for programs designed to get women into skilled trades.

[hagan_das]

Exactly. The diversity hand wringers could be targeting any industry they want right now but are lasering in on tech.

They smell the blood in the water.