Comment by Justin Pullen on "How do we solve the problem of sexism in tech?"

My answer to "How do we solve the problem of sexism in tech?"

There will always be "Bad" people in any field as large as Tech. I would not be so quick to inject that all tech has a sexism problem. We cannot deny that there are instances of it (like the ones posted above). However, if you peeled the HR layers back I would bet there are instances of age discrimination, racism and all sorts of nasty violations that have occurred. We are talking about an industry with millions of people. There will be bad seeds. and education, workplace discipline or legal action is the only way to deal those.

I know some will read this as “there is an underrepresentation of females in tech, thus we are a sexist industry” there are three easy steps to follow if you read the question this way.

Step One: Encourage more females to pursue tech as a career.

        - This will boost their representation in tech.

Step Two: Encourage more females to pursue tech as a career.

        - This will boost their representation in tech.

Step Three: Encourage more females to pursue tech as a career.

        - This will boost their representation in tech.

(Yes, I know they are all the same but it is the only way I see it working and allowing the growth to be sustainable. If it is a falsely inflated bubble because we offer some special privilege to one gender it will pop and the market will correct itself back to being called sexists)

Also, I believe labeling Tech as sexist could drive women away. Bad PR can really hurt a lot of people trying to do the right thing. Stay positive and encouraging people to pursue tech and don’t let the instances of bad seeds discourage you.

Exactly this. The misbehaviour of some people does not constitute a structural problem. If you see someone behaving sexist, point it out, fight it, do everything you can to stop it, there is no other way to discourage any unwanted behaviour than to hold the people responsible for their own individual actions. Just because some douche at Uber has a difficult relationship with his mommy, doesn't mean we need global policy changes "in tech".

Well, we have "Girls' Days" everywhere, there are school campaigns, there are brochures, there are teachers encouraging girls to pursue a tech career. Most of the girls present answer, that they think about it, but might decide otherwise. Most of them do decide otherwise. So our current campaigns are not that effective. That leaves the question: How exactly would you encourage more females to pursue tech as a career? That statement sounds nice, but is nothing more than that. Could you be more specific?

@maruru I understand where you are coming from when saying our campaigns are "not effective." But maybe these campaigns are reaching thier maximum return? So if that is the case by the campaign's standard they are effective, but by your measuring stick they are not because they did not produce the return you wanted. These are tested methods that have been proven to work. Which leads me to your next statement "Most of them do decide to do otherwise." Maybe there is nothing wrong with the campaigns just because females choose a different carrer path? I am not sure the Tech industry is willing to accept the fact that many females in our current society do not want to work in tech because of sheer personal preference? Preposterous! but maybe the tech industry has to realize and accept the modest returns our proven campaign have given us. I have spoken at middle schools and high schools and I see there are some girls interested and I make it clear to them we want everyone. I don't care who is beside me as long as we get our projects done.

@justinp

So you rather argue about how to measure effectiveness than thinking about the problem at hand? In my opinion, that's not solving anything and will yield nothing. The question should rather be: why are they not that effective and how should a campaign be held (which is missing entirely from your post)? Maybe because we pull in girls with no interest to begin with. Maybe they already know what they want to do, but their school forced them to participate. Maybe the brochure did not present the topic adequately. I have seen brochures which made me come to the conclusion, that we want women because they are women. That's rubbish. Just like men holding such presentations. Girls cannot relate to them and men cannot talk about personal experience or success stories, which are a vital part to get others engaged and excited about something. I think, if you want women in tech, it schould be women presenting the industry to girls.

The way I see it, there are countless more things which are very wrong with how we handle not only the campaigns but the whole topic today. The whole gender-thinking is at the center and having special programs for women only enforces that kind of thinking. That's why in my opinion, we should stop the campaigns for girls in tech and start to think of everyone as more equal, no matter the sex or gender (save for the small biological stuff).

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