Re:As a Woman in Tech, I Realized: These Are Not My People
by Mz on Thursday August 10, 2017 @01:08PM
(#14981786)
Explicitly so, if there's any history of sexism and prejudice.
Actually, they need to be implicitly welcomed, not explicitly.
(For clarity's sake: http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2016/07/less-exclusi...)
And I apologize for sounding argumentative. Thank you for your great comment, much of which I agree with.
Well, not last week, when I went to SHA-2017, but there was a surprising number of children there. 10% someone claimed, which is way more than I'd ever seen at previous hacker festivals. Clearly nerds and hackers are having love lives and kids these days. And although the majority was absolutely typical white male nerds like me, there were also a lot of women.
And that's the core issue, I think. It doesn't have to be a perfect 50/50 split, but women and minorities do have to be welcome. Explicitly so, if there's any history of sexism and prejudice. If women leave the industry because they don't like the content of the work itself, that's fine. But if they leave because they don't like their co-workers or the atmosphere, then you've got a culture problem.