Re:Speaking up
by belorn on Monday February 04, 2013 @05:56PM
(#5167797)
1/4 is just dishonest. Its like saying that 1/4 of ALL children starve to death (which is statistics wrapped to the point of uselessness, even without then claiming that 1/4 of all children of people in IT starves to death). When using statistics, please use some kind of reference and try to include what the shortcomings of the said statistics are. At least start with something like <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics>; which gives the reader a starting point.
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Re:Speaking up
by throwaway54-762 on Monday February 04, 2013 @06:49PM
(#5168076)
No, not really. It's a rough estimate; given that the "Rape statistics" page on Wikipedia you reference puts rape attempts on women in the US at 1 in 6 (meanwhile, the same article puts rape attempts on men in the US at 1 in 33, largely accounted for by prison rape), adding in sexual assault, street harassment, etc can only increase that number. And 1 in 4 is a meaningful thing to visualize. Think of four women you know.
I'm not claiming that for the statistic for the US at large is 100% representative of the tech community. But unless you have a good reason to believe it to be different, it seems like a reasonable starting point.