Yeah it is. Hear hooves, think horses, don't try too hard to eliminate zebras.
EDIT: I am one the many reasons women don't like working (in tech). Friends of mine are at work, overly enthusiastic when engaging with female colleagues - nothing overt, nothing offensive, but noticeable. Smarmy perhaps. It's something most women at work seem to accept as normal if distasteful. I am reasonably certain I am on the smary spectrum. Problem is I don't tell my friends, so they don't tell me.
And the fact that it has taken me till my forties to have sufficent self- knowledge indicates the world is full of guys like me - and that's not a world I want my daughters to work in.
Edit2: perhaps a simpler approach - I get fed up watching people demand incontrovertible proof that they are part of the problem. If there are climate change deniers, there are sexism-is-a-problem deniers.
(Yes of course the two problems are not of same magnitude, but the psychological issues at play are the same)
Not sure what you're trying to say there. No studies have empirically gotten at the root causes of the gender gap. Sure, sexism probably accounts for some percentage of women deciding not to choose such a profession, but there's no evidence to think it's a predominant role.
Sounds like you may be projecting your own attitude towards women onto others, possibly? I've never acted smarmy towards female coworkers, and haven't seen anyone else do so. Nor have I ever heard them complain about such a thing. Occasional social awkwardness; some older gentlemen being a little too eager to help (not in a smarmy way or with romantic/sexual overtones or anything like that, just polite "old-fashioned" behavior); but that's about it. That doesn't mean it hasn't happened to them, but if it did, they probably would have said something to someone if they felt it was a big enough issue.
Of course, I can't speak for women in general; maybe a lot of them do deal with smarminess in the workplace. All I have are anecdotes. But your anecdote doesn't mean you can speak for them in general, either. Are there any blog posts or testimonies by women in tech who've discussed this that I could look at?
We are so ingrained in this it's hard to think our way out.
The scientific approach here would be to record our words and tonality when dealing with all our co-workers and look for patterns. Anecdotes from blog posts are not going to cut it. This is something really deep in biology and society.
Good luck
You have me.
>When we compare the lot of a 16 yo girl in Rwanda to a High schooler in SF, yes it is hard to find where the High schooler is having problems, but we just have to look at the ratio of men and women in tech to see there is a problem - even in modern, western, progressive San Francisco.
>So globally, sexism is a violent oppressive force holding back progress for billions.
Yeah, you lost me. Not only are you comparing things of very different degrees, your second example doesn't even support your point.
Of course sexism is a major problem in large parts of the world. But you completely failed to apply that to San Francisco. Evidence of an employment ratio difference, or even a wage gap (without careful controlling of as many variables as possible), is not necessarily evidence of sexism.