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Written in a New York Times article and summarily paraphrased here,
Elissa Shevinsky can pinpoint the moment when she felt that she no longer belonged. She was at a friend's house watching the live stream of the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon, when she saw that it opened with two men who developed an app called Titstare. After some banter, one of Titstare's developers proudly proclaimed, "This is the breast hack ever."
Ms. Shevinsky felt pushed to the edge. Women who enter fields dominated by men often feel this way. "It's a thousand tiny paper cuts," is how Ashe Dryden, a programmer who now consults on increasing diversity in technology, described working in tech. Women in tech like Shevinsky and Dryden advocate working to change the tech culture from inside-out, but other women like Lea Verou write that,
' women-only conferences and hackathons cultivate the notion that women are these weak beings who find their male colleagues too intimidating...As a woman, I find it insulting and patronizing to be viewed that way.'
This all being hot on the heels of engineer Julie Ann Horvath's departure from Github as a result of similar concern.
Any of you care to address your own personal experiences or opinions regarding the subject matter; as well as the accuracy of the articles' stories compared to the industry-at-large?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Geezer on Monday April 07 2014, @10:29AM
The corollary to this is that the evolution of social norms relating to inter-gender interaction is incomplete. Whether it's in tech or on a construction site, we still have the problem of slut-shaming every woman outside of show business who honestly expresses her independence and sexuality. Men are almost universally guilty of this hypocrisy, and Victorian-minded women are too.
Yeah, men and women are wired differently. So we string men with bare copper, and it's OK, but we expect 100 Megohm insulation resistance from women. That's just not right.
I served with a bunch of women in the Navy back in the 1970's who were tough enough mentally and emotionally to overcome the bullshit and actually thrive on being assertive, self-secure, individuals. This despite the military boys-club culture. They earned the respect of their male peers and never stopped being women for a second. And FWIW, the sexiest woman I ever dated was a line handler on a tug boat. You'd think by 2014 we'd have come further in terms of wide (see, I didn't say "broad"!) acceptance.
We need to foster that cultural evolution everywhere.