Re: OT: Gender Bias In SW Development
- Posted by mattlewis (admin) Feb 25, 2015
- 3310 views
I hope you aren't counting me in the "no bias against women," because that's not a fair reading of what I said. I said that I haven't witnessed it at my particular company.
That's not all you said. You also claimed that the original article seemed to have problems of its own (e.g. reporters apparently not trying to verify the stories with the anonymous companies).
Yes, the article might be 100% correct, but the way it is written it looks one sided and uncritical.
At several points in my career there, I've been outnumbered and outranked by women. No amount of bias at other companies invalidates what I've seen and experienced.
I guess the real question is this: Is there a systematic bias? Is it just a few insignificant places, or does it cover a large swath of corporate America?
While, like mattlewis, I haven't personally seen any examples myself, I wouldn't have been in a position to do so, and I have no problems believing that America still has a significant systematic bias against female coders that covers a large swath of corporate America, and also that this set of affairs is not desirable, and should be rectified somehow.
It's hard to say. My impression is that the imbalance starts early. For whatever reason, boys seem more interested in programming than girls, on average. I know that some have hypothesized a girl hostile environment, I'm not convinced that's the whole story. Why are women doing so well in life sciences, for instance? As I said, I'm sure there are hostile places, but I think the story is a lot bigger than that.
Matt
