dobbin

It's a common pattern throughout history and one that really annoys me. People argue that the pay gap isn't real because men choose more highly-valued positions, but the reality is that positions favoured by women are inherently considered low-value. If some type of "women's work" somehow starts to become respectable or starts to pay better, it stops being "women's work" and the women are pushed out. If women start entering a respectable field and the field becomes "women's work", it stops being respectable. You can see it with the salaries of doctors in Russia, and the narrowing definition of what is considered "hard science" or STEM as women enter these fields in the US. It has very little to do with how difficult or important the work is.

You know, not every woman who has bad experiences in the tech industry writes a blog post about it and puts it up on HN. A lot of us don't even bother reporting it to HR anymore, since we're well aware by now that HR exists to protect the company from lawsuits, not to protect women from harassment. And lawsuits just end up getting you informally blacklisted. I personally know a lot of women, including myself, who have faced issues with sexism and harassment in the tech industry, and most of us have either sucked it up if we decide it's not that bad, or find another job if it is. I doubt any of us would bring it up in front of a male coworker who hasn't already demonstrated that he's "safe" to talk to about these things. I think it's great that more women are feeling comfortable speaking publicly about issues in the industry, but I think many of us are still struggling not to be the nail that sticks out and gets hammered down. Why would someone put their career at risk to "educate" a coworker who has already demonstrated that he doesn't care what women say about it?