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Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by ohstopitu on Friday April 21, 2017 @08:34AM (#14164924)
so would you say those fields that have >50% women would need to work on their gender diversity to include more men?
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by tptacek on Friday April 21, 2017 @08:38AM (#14164968)
Since molecular biology has something like a 54/46 distribution and tech has something like a 19/81 distribution I'd probably tell anyone who told me I should focus on the injustices of molecular biology to shove it up their ass.
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by belorn on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:07AM (#14165185)
54/46 is considered gender equal ratio in Sweden as its within the 40%/40% line.

However the argument that we should put our focus based on how high the gender unequal distribution is is an fascinating argument since here in Sweden we have a perfect record of every employed person profession (as part of the tax record). We can list every professions and their gender distribution, and naturally very few of the stem professions are at top or even in the top 20. Worst two professions (of each gender) had midwife and floor tile worker at both >99.4% of each representative gender.

The data for female dominated professions was midwife and dentist at 99.6% and above, with pediatric at 98%. For male dominated profession at 99%-98% it is tile worker, mechanic, thin plate worker, carpenter, concrete worker, electrician, and last plumber. With 90% of people working in a profession with less than 40% women or 40% men, IT with a distribution of 81%/19% is quite average and unremarkable on the list. molecular biology, being in that small 10%, is much more remarkable because it actually has a gender equal distribution.

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by tptacek on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:10AM (#14165217)
In case this needs to be spelled out for you, and I apologize if it doesn't, but the subtext of there being a unique gender disparity in tech not shared by thematically similar STEM fields, let alone STEM in general, is that the causal agent is misogyny.
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by Neliquat on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:27AM (#14165352)
If you have any facts to back up that strong assertion, I am sure people are interested. Otherwise, a blanket accusal of 'misogyny' is asinine and nonproductive.
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by tptacek on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:31AM (#14165382)
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by jasode on Friday April 21, 2017 @10:24AM (#14165847)
I wasn't the one who downvoted you but I'm sure you're aware that the other side of the argument (that claim it's not misogyny) also cites Occam's razor.

Therefore, for either side to claim that the "simplest explanation is misogyny" or "simplest explanation is preferences" is seen as unconvincing to the opponent.

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by true_religion on Friday April 21, 2017 @11:30AM (#14166410)
My personal rule is that anyone who deigns to use latin in their arguments also has to use all English words in their dictionary form, and not their colloquial expression.

As per that, your use of misogyny to mean something apart from ingrained dislike or contempt for women is wrong.

You're using misogyny as if its a synonym for any expression of differing attitudes to men and women, regardless of if the outcome is good or bad, and if the participants feel happy or poorly about the situation.

That colloquial usage is utterly disqualified if you want to turn this into a formal argument.

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by reitanqild on Friday April 21, 2017 @10:38AM (#14165959)
I'm aware that you are a celebrity here and I'm a nobody.

And I agree with you in a lot of things, including that we should make workplaces more inclusive.

But being right does not entitle you to be rude, passive agressive, using various tricks to silence everyone.

Think about this: if someone else behaved like you are doing now (edit: in this whole thread) - and wasn't a celebrity or otherwise safe - they might very well have to face unpleasant consequences (edit: was something like might very well have to find a new job).

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by tptacek on Friday April 21, 2017 @11:05AM (#14166205)
There's nothing passive about my take on this problem. And nobody's being "silenced", at least not by me.
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by true_religion on Friday April 21, 2017 @11:22AM (#14166346)
Until you mentioned the posters 'celebrity' status, I hadn't even read their username.

Usernames, and personalities, are very de-emphasized on HN.

I'm also uncertain what issue you have with their behaviour?

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by 77pt77 on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:13AM (#14165241)
Where can I find that breakdown of the data?

I'm very interested in looking at the raw numbers.

Thank you.

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by wolly on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:26AM (#14165337)
http://www.statistikdatabasen.scb.se/pxweb/en/ssd/

Labour market - The Swedish Occupational Register

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by 77pt77 on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:30AM (#14165367)
In English no less.

Great resource.

Thank you!

A taste: (unfortunately I can't link to the actual report)

Gender pay-gap in IT related fields is <5% (for the same occupation and education) vs 10 to 20% for the general private sector.

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by BearGoesChirp on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:30AM (#14165368)
People who care about a 19/81 split in one field in college when college as a whole is a 66/33 split should... well you already offered a suggestion at what they should do.

Or we could stop acting as if the metric at the end is what we need to equalize, look at it only as an indicator, and then find issues to fix. If 19/81 is caused by some actual sort of discrimination, we can fix which ever issues we identify. Just as we can with the 66/33 split.

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by JabavuAdams on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:12AM (#14165230)
> to shove it up their ass.

C'mon man. You're better than that.

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by reitanqild on Friday April 21, 2017 @10:21AM (#14165825)
Giving you an upvote (yep, parent was downvoted for some reason) and say agree:

I too have seen tptacek communicate a lot better than today.

[dead]
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by tptacek on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:02AM (#14165152)
This rebuttal is so tired that it's actually (search for it in Dan and Scott's comments) banned from the site, but I think that's a mistake, because it is in fact a huge problem that there is a 91/9 split in nursing. A bigger problem than tech's disparity. The status-shifting we've done with "nursing" has resulted in scarce and expensive medical doctors being (almost always pointlessly) our first line of health care in the US. We should rename "nurse practitioners" to "associate physicians", discarding the gender-inflected term "nurse".
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by dragonwriter on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:38AM (#14165439)
Yes, and that's recognized as a huge problem in that field. Were we in a nursing-focussed discussion forum, there's probably be a lot of talk about it.

It is a direct result of patriarchal social attitudes combined with the fact that nursing is perceived as a subordinate role to medicine, and therefore beneath men.

So it's actually a manifestation of the same broad social problem as the disparity in tech, rather than the mirror image.

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by justin66 on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:24AM (#14165323)
As far as I can tell, hospitals recognize it's a problem and are doing what they can in terms of recruitment.
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by nommm-nommm on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:36AM (#14165427)
It's not even just hospitals

The American Association of Men in Nursing: http://www.aamn.org/

The Campaign for Nursing’s Future: https://www.discovernursing.com/men-in-nursing

Minority Nurse: http://minoritynurse.com/

Oregon Center for Nursing: http://oregoncenterfornursing.org/nursing-posters/

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by vermontdevil on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:21AM (#14165292)
And why do you think it came to this point?

Hint - it has to do with getting in the medical school.

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by 77pt77 on Friday April 21, 2017 @08:44AM (#14165019)
> so would you say those fields that have >50%

Notice what was written. It was not >50%. It was better than 50%

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by Chris2048 on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:32AM (#14165394)
It's either greater or lesser than 50%. If so if not greater, then you are saying lesser than can be "better"?
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by qbrass on Friday April 21, 2017 @10:49AM (#14166062)
It's a distance from optimal, making it worse no matter which direction it is.
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by Chris2048 on Friday April 21, 2017 @01:00PM (#14167275)
But then "so would you say those fields that have >50%.." is a valid question by that measure.
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by bkkssnn on Friday April 21, 2017 @08:47AM (#14165035)
What is better than 50 % ?
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by 77pt77 on Friday April 21, 2017 @08:55AM (#14165105)
The original comment was:

> and some STEM fields, like molecular biology, have better than 50% representation of women.

not ">50%"

not "more than 50%"

not "higher than 50%"

but "better than 50%"

Of all the variations, only the last one has a moral value attached to it.

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by moopling on Friday April 21, 2017 @08:40AM (#14164982)
Where are you going to expend your energy? The whole world is full of misogency, do you spend your time trying to fix that, or worry about the compartively small number of times men face unfairness?
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by Chris2048 on Friday April 21, 2017 @09:28AM (#14165356)
Flip this same argument around, and you get accused of derailing/silencing: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Misdirected_feminism
Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by moopling on Friday April 21, 2017 @11:26AM (#14166381)
Hmmmmm, that's a really good point. I suppose I agree that in general an argument that there is worse shit in the world is probably a bad reason to ignore other problems. In this case however it'd be difficult to do anything about biases against men without exacerbating sexism further.

If you can think of a way of making things fairer for men, without making things worse for women at the same time I'm all for it.

Re:Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? by Chris2048 on Friday April 21, 2017 @12:59PM (#14167268)
> In this case however it'd be difficult to do anything about biases against men without exacerbating sexism

How so? It's not even established that an unequal gender ratio is "sexism" at all.