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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: 3, Funny) by Dunbal on Monday April 07 2014, @12:59PM
These complaining women. They can a) walk away and bitch about it, which is what most of them do, or b) actually try to do things to fix it, which might improve things for future women. If you are in category "a" then you are part of the problem not the solution. The world is the way it is and bitching about it is not constructive. But hey, with time and effort all sorts of attitudes can be changed. If you don't care enough to put in the time and effort, then don't expect the world to change just because you want it to.
(Score: 1) by Whiteludafan on Monday April 07 2014, @03:03PM
I completely disagree. The problem isn't with women, its with men who don't act appropriately. Putting the onus on women is the wrong thing to do -- some men need to change their behavior.
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Monday April 07 2014, @03:47PM
What I am saying is sitting around expecting men to change their behavior isn't going to do anything. Neither is complaining about it. Pro-active is the way to go.
(Score: 1) by rochrist on Tuesday April 08 2014, @01:09AM
What on earth is proactive in this context if complaining about it is out of bounds? Are they supposed to bring guns to work and open fire?