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A comment on Dear Hacker Community – We Need To Talk. Parent comment

Re:Dear Hacker Community – We Need To Talk by lukev on Friday December 28, 2012 @09:15PM (#4980758)
As a hacker, you should know that even a "small" statistical bias (10%-20%) can invalidate experimental results, or contribute to large problems in a complex system.

So why is a small but real bias against women in tech still not a huge problem?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Dear Hacker Community – We Need To Talk by w1ntermute on Friday December 28, 2012 @09:33PM (#4980820)
> why is a small but real bias against women in tech still not a huge problem?

Did you actually bother to read my post before hitting "reply"?

> sexism is clearly an issue in the hacker community that needs to be tackled

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Re:Dear Hacker Community – We Need To Talk by lukev on Friday December 28, 2012 @10:17PM (#4980942)
And I apologize if you really do see this as an issue that needs to be tackled, and if you do something about it whenever you are in a context to do so.

But to often I see this same response to allegations of sexism online - admitting that it's a problem in the general case while undermining the woman's argument in the particulars. You could even possibly be right in this case, but by taking the approach of poking holes in women's complaints, you're undermining their point in general.

Worse, it strays dangerously near "blame the victim" mentality... "if only she hadn't been so inexperienced/emotional/womanly". Regardless of the truth of it, it's actively harmful to genuinely addressing the problem.

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