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Wrt the pipeline, I have to agree to a large extent. I admit it, I'm biased on a lot of levels, not really against gender, but I will admit I prefer to work with men. That said, doing pre-screening of applications at a job a few years ago opened my eyes a lot. To be honest, I no longer hold much of any value to a resume... I've seen too many people with higher degrees and years of experience that can't seem to do what it says they can on said resume. Me, I'm particularly bad at white board coding... but I understand the need. That said, I'd rather have a laptop connected to a projector. I've probably sat in on a couple hundred interviews of other people over the years, and only a handful were of women... For the most part, I appreciate that women tend to be much more accurate on their resumes and in responses as to their skill level. I've never really liked excessive arrogance, and prefer someone more honest. This is just me though. I also think that efforts to make language and interactions politically correct are a disservice to the goal of letting anyone that wants to work in IT do so. A few months back I witnessed someone pretty much accosted because he dared to ask, "...can any of you guys help me with this?". My extended family is over 80% female... my step father was an only child, but my mom was one of 4 sisters, her mom one of three, and half of the women in my family only had daughters (including my sister). hearing things like "I miss you guys." was said by women, to women, without any gender bias, as a generic phrasing. There's a difference between being overtly sensitive and issues of bias/discrimination worth bringing up. We're at a point where awareness is increasing, but as a society we've also been heading down a path of so much excessive sensitivity that it's downright abusive towards people who aren't ill-meaning. I hope that a balance is found sooner than later. |
"[..] that it's downright abusive towards people who aren't ill-meaning. I hope that a balance is found sooner than later."
I'm totally against any (slightly) sexist words, and have always stopped people from using them - inside or outside of my teams/departments. That said:
Sometimes gender activists focus on the 'easy' things, like language, where it is easy to call someone out, and where it is an easy to understand world view with evil sexists on one side blocking female progress and good gender activists on the other side.
That way of living is easier than accept that there are many things women must do themselves (push for higher salaries, aspire for careers, fight for promotions, help other women with role models) and what activists could do: hire more women, become a tech (manager) role model, ...