DEV Community

Discussion on: In pursuit of an even playing field

Collapse
 
cubikca profile image
Brian Richardson

It starts with education. A recent poll by JetBrains showed that 80% of people know how to code (for example) by the time they get out of high school. Even in school, though, very few women gravitated to the computer lab or the library. Believe me, I wish they had. This has of course biased my normal environment, to the point where I may even be biased in favour of hiring women purely on the basis of their being women.

I rarely see female applicants, let alone qualified female applicants. I think your list is a good start. I'd note a couple of anecdotal things though:

  • Pay at our company is equal for equal work
  • Many of the webinars I attend have female speakers, and some of the best ones I have seen are female. I don't see a huge discrepancy in male to female ratio, certainly far less so than the industry at large.
  • I don't see the sort of condescension that you point to. Most of the female consultants and colleagues I've had are equally competent, and I treat them as such. So do my colleagues.

This is a conversation I have with my wife on occasion, and I'm happy to see people talking about it.