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Discussion on: The 2018 year of ladies come back in tech

 
designalchemy profile image
Luke

Oh not at all, that wasn't what i was suggesting and i 100% agree we should reduce any barriers that exist but also we shouldnt try and force something. Algeria for example has one of the worst records for gender equality yet contains the most woman in STEM in the world.

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tadman profile image
Scott Tadman

Gender may have something to do with probabilities when talking about aggregate populations but it has very little to do with personal preferences.

Americans like NASCAR more than other countries do, but that doesn't mean every American loves NASCAR nor that there aren't NASCAR fans from other countries.

If you wanted to hire someone to blog about NASCAR you wouldn't limit your search to Americans only, you'd screen based on interest. Maybe there's a superfan in France who's the best qualified.

The same goes for tech. Stop using aggregate statistics to bias your thinking about individuals.

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designalchemy profile image
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Luke

"A straw man is a common form of argument and is an informal fallacy based on giving the impression of refuting an opponent's argument, while actually refuting an argument that was not presented by that opponent. One who engages in this fallacy is said to be "attacking a straw man.""

No one said anything similar to what your suggesting

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tadman profile image
Scott Tadman • Edited

This should be a yellow card. First you dump a link to some research paper without any effort to unpack it, and then you make accusations of a logical fallacy.

Gender does have something to do with it but only in aggregate and on an individual level it is entirely irrelevant. There's far too much variability on an individual level for statistics to be of any use. At all.

You're also completely ignoring the fact that a disproportionate majority of software developers were women in the era when "hardware" was the prestigious thing to do. When software became prominent in the 1980s the gender bias shifted dramatically in the other direction.

Gender is as irrelevant to someone's ability to code as their choice of music or favourite sport is.

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designalchemy profile image
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Luke

Once again your suggestioning things that are totally untrue. I was merely stating the data states men are women statically are into different things. Also countries with higher equality have less women choose stem careers. The data doesn't lie. I personally would like to see more women in tech but you can't force them to be if they don't choose to be.

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tadman profile image
Scott Tadman

Do you understand that statistics speak only in terms of aggregates and have almost nothing to do with individual preferences?

The data is irrelevant on the scale of individual people. It's only relevant when talking about populations.

This stubborn insistence that "women statistically are into different things" is used an excuse to not hire women in the first place, to discourage them from certain careers, and to force them out of tech.

Stop being part of the problem.

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designalchemy profile image
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Luke

Literally no one on the planet is trying to force women out of tech or not hire women, iv been a developer for over 8 years now and we always pined after women in tech. I guess your also suggesting we should hire so its 50% men 50% women across all careers and industries.

I think your projection and consistent straw-man fallacies are a much bigger problem than a simple view of letting people do as they wish and supporting them with such decisions.

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tadman profile image
Scott Tadman

"I guess your also suggesting we should hire so its 50% men 50% women across all careers and industries."

We probably should considering that's how the planet's demographics largely work. There's very few jobs where this is impractical or impossible.

Also "...letting people do as they wish and supporting them with such decisions" is called being a decent human being.

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designalchemy profile image
Luke

Hmm, yeah ill let you also try and force women into being miners, loggers, roofers, labourers, firefighters, waste collector, welder, stonemason ete etc.

It is called being a decent human being which is actually the opposite of what your trying to do. Most humans are happy to let people choose their own paths but your actually trying to force people into something the data suggests isnt split how your perfect 50% world is.

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tadman profile image
Scott Tadman

It's not 1950. Women do all of these things.

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designalchemy profile image
Luke

No, your wrong again ...

bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/03/06/c...

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tadman profile image
Scott Tadman

That just shows how far we have to go in many fields to achieve something even close to proper representation.