Re: Openness amplifies Inequality?

Posted by Roger Critchlow-2 on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Fwd-Major-bug-called-Heartbleed-exposes-Internet-data-tp7585135p7585153.html

So, what's the question here?

You think maybe that the predominance of straight white men in technology is innately right?  That other genders and races aren't capable of doing the job, so all those white male losers and assholes that we have to deal with are objectively the best people for the jobs they hold?

Or are you thinking that maybe all those white male losers got their skills and jobs through some sort of structural inequity that tilted the competition in their favor?  That a kind of in-group altruism is operating here, where white men give each other a pass while agreeing to allow the jerks among them to beat up the women, persons of color, and non-normative gender identities so those uppity not male, not white, not straight competitors have to wade through piles of shit that straight white men never meet?

If you grant that the competition has been tilted in the past and is still tilted the present, by whatever mysterious mechanisms there might be that help some while hindering others, then it's hard to argue that the same mysterious mechanisms won't find their way into the future.

-- rec --

On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 12:38 PM, Marcus G. Daniels <[hidden email]> wrote:

Astra Taylor writes:

``Those women who do fight their way into the industry often end up
leaving -- their attrition rate is 56%, or double that of men -- and
sexism is a big part of what pushes them out. “I no longer touch code
because I couldn't deal with the constant dismissing and undermining of
even my most basic work by the ‘brogramming’ gulag I worked for,” wrote
one woman in a roundup of answers to the question: Why there are so few
female engineers?''

Women form cliques too.  I'm all for prohibiting all of this (coalition
formation and politics) from the work place, but that's not likely to
happen.  Make it as taboo as sexual harassment.  Some people believe
that this is all part of what gives a team good morale and
communication.  I think that's nonsense.  A good team is made of people
that are engaged in the technical work, and not each other.

My experience is that, in the world of software engineering, women are
often easier to work with then men.  Often they have better listening
skills and better impulse control -- and so there is less of the Not
Invented Here syndrome which plagues so many projects.  But only so many
`family oriented' people will work 12-16 hour days.

Marcus





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