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by delluminatus 4136 days ago
You said yourself that you can believe that sexism is worse in tech than in other professions. That is already a problem worth discussing. Why is it worse? What can we do to correct that discrepancy?

I will go so far as to say your suggestion to "focus on the problem in full generality" -- which is to say, to completely encompass an impossibly complicated issue -- is just a way of trying to pass responsibility and to avoid admitting that there is a problem. Of course, trying to resolve sexism everywhere is admirable. But to use the existence of sexism in other fields as a reason to avoid addressing it in our own is little better than rejecting its existence altogether.

edit for your edit: I think there are specific reasons that sexism is more prevalent in tech, which are not necessarily related to "software people are ignorant". In our culture there appears to be a general bias against women in pretty much all STEM fields, perhaps for historical reasons. I suspect (although this is just my opinion) that this is largely responsible for any greater bias that exists in tech as well. There is a mistaken perception that women are less capable in highly rational pursuits, which affects how women in tech are viewed by their colleagues. I think this is a big reason that women have a hard time in tech.

2 comments

I'd expect it's worse in tech than some other professions on average because tech is mostly male, which I think is mostly due to gendered expectations originating from parenting and early education.

I think "just don't be sexist please" makes more sense than "don't be sexist at work if you belong to this profession". Like I desperately clarified in my edit which you may not have seen, I'm not saying it shouldn't be pointed out in tech, I'm saying it's suspicious that the cultural narrative focuses so much on tech in particular.

Bias against women? Seriously?