Re:We built voice modulation to mask gender in technical int...
by onion2k on Thursday June 30, 2016 @01:25AM
(#12006753)
At some point we need to face up to the reality that most women in the US are just not interested in working in technology.
Let's assume for a moment that this is true. I'm not sure it is, but we'll go with it.
Software companies don't hire women who aren't interested in technology because those women don't apply for the job. The aim of ideas like the one in the article is to make the hiring process fairer by removing a gender bias from the pool of candidates who do apply. That's all. It doesn't imply that the candidate pool will change.
The point is that every equally qualified candidate in that pool should have the same chance of getting the job. Better candidate should have higher chances. Biases skew that probability downwards, so we should aim to remove them. Otherwise we aren't hiring the best people.
Let's assume for a moment that this is true. I'm not sure it is, but we'll go with it.
Software companies don't hire women who aren't interested in technology because those women don't apply for the job. The aim of ideas like the one in the article is to make the hiring process fairer by removing a gender bias from the pool of candidates who do apply. That's all. It doesn't imply that the candidate pool will change.
The point is that every equally qualified candidate in that pool should have the same chance of getting the job. Better candidate should have higher chances. Biases skew that probability downwards, so we should aim to remove them. Otherwise we aren't hiring the best people.