News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on What Silicon Valley Thinks of Women. Parent comment

Re:What Silicon Valley Thinks of Women by tptacek on Thursday January 29, 2015 @04:47PM (#8969072)
No offense, but I'm not sure you've actually said anything here. Take this exact comment, substitute "women" for "men", and it seems equally valid. If you can't explain why things would be different specifically for women, you're not addressing the fact that there are four men for every woman in software development.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What Silicon Valley Thinks of Women by sheepmullet on Thursday January 29, 2015 @10:09PM (#8970283)
I'm saying that women, on average, might value the attributes/factors I listed more than men. I.e.

Being able to take 1+ years off when you have children without serious career damage is more important to woman than men.

The research I have read suggests that women are much less likely to leave a job they enjoy and where they have made friends in order to get a pay rise than men are. It's not much of a leap for women to consider this issue before entering a field.

Likewise there is considerable research on women being more risk averse than men and surely this at least has an impact on joining the startup world.

My last two paragraphs basically boil down to a question for you: why are women who are, in your opinion, not becoming software developers because of sexism still entering into roles that interact heavily with these sexist software developers?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What Silicon Valley Thinks of Women by tptacek on Friday January 30, 2015 @11:11AM (#8972675)
Easy: because those roles you referenced are fed by a career track that starts in university programs with a much better gender balance. Some of those role are MBAs, and some of them (the project management stuff) are generic liberal arts with some industry training (like PMP).

That doesn't mean that the solution to the problem is in university enrollment, but it does explain why it's easier to find women in non-tech roles in software companies: it's because those roles don't require an early life commitment to a career in technology.

[ Parent | on HN ]