[rchiba]

> These biases occur unconsciously and without intention or malice.

As someone who has faced situations where a gender microagression has caused workplace conflict, the above quote cannot be stressed enough. Just because you didn't have the intention to be biased or discriminate does not mean it did not happen. For some reason this concept eludes even the sharpest people.

We all have our biases. It's about time we owned up to them and put effort into mitigating them.

[danieltillett]

What is "gender microagression”?

[rchiba]

It's when a guy from another department walks into a room and asks for a developer, unconsciously ignores the female developer closest to him and starts addressing the male developer.

It's when a guy kindly asks a woman to stop debating a technical spec because she wouldn't understand the details (even though she's more technical than he is).

It's when a sales guy makes a joke with his female colleague that her eye makeup is what is closing deals that day.

[malandrew]

I don't know about other departments coming in to ask for an engineer, but when it's an engineer looking for another engineer on a different team, it usually takes the form of asking openly in that teams hipchat/slack/irc room (as gender neutral as it gets) or specifically addressing one particular engineer (usually because that engineer is known for being great at providing advice or technical details on the issue at hand)

I've never once witnessed that second one and would be shocked if I did witness that. I've been around long enough that if that were still a problem, I would expect to have witnessed it firsthand.

I know the third happens (my sister is in sales and has been subjected to it).

[danieltillett]

I can see the micro in these examples, just not the aggression.

Thanks for the explanation as it was a term I had no idea existed.

[tracker1]

Things like "... can you guys give me a hand." apparently.

I think it's a combination of things... on the one hand there is outright descrimination and bias... on the other, society is leaning towards overtly sensitive to anything that could be considered insensitive or biased.

[roel_v]

Believe me: you don't want to know.