Why are women so underrepresented in tech?
Because tech is often a toxic bro club. There are many projects that are trying to fix this (Python is a good example), but it takes time, effort, and a lot of debating...
this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2022
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Unfortunately, even in communities that try to be welcoming, women are extremely underrepresented. My local Rust group has only a scant number of women attending, and they rarely come to the social events after. That's despite a concerted effort by the Rust community to set strict standards around behavior.
Imagine dealing with misogyny and harassment all your life. Even when you do find a group that is safe and welcoming, it will take a while for you to trust it.
Plus, this misogyny permeates society and the education system specifically. People are told outright "tech is for guys", in a myriad of ways. In a way it's just amazing that some phenomenal, strong women are able to break through this bullshit and end up doing tech stuff.
I do hope it will get better, and welcoming, safe communities (like Rust!) make that change possible.
(and I kind of suspect all of this is kinda obvious; if so, sorry for mansplaining 😅 )
From experience: when bigoted old dudes get to make hiring decisions, they make hiring decisions like bigoted old dudes.
And let's not just pin this on older men. I've seen plenty of sexist younger men, though I do feel like the younger the cohort the better they are in general.
Because it started paying well. And society decides that anything paying well is a man's job
Oof. It's unsurprising, but I still hate it. I also had my ideas mocked because of an ad hominem argument.
It's weird how despite how true this statement is, so many guys will angrily refute it.
Data says it's actually the other way around: when a larger number of women get into a job sector it stops paying well (for all, even men). Similar result I guess, but this can also be explained by some other factors than just misogyny.
Source? Nursing is the main example I can think of. As jobs in general got shitty, nursing appeared to be a seemingly less shitty career with decent pay/benefits, which is why tons of men are trying to get into it now.
Uhm, that depends on the country. Most places Nursing is still a really stressful and badly paid job (for all gender).
I remember reading a lengthy well scientifically sourced article about it (sorry can't remember where right now), and the clearest example was journalism, which went from a well paid job mostly done by males, to a badly paid (or not paid at all) job after more and more women entered the sector.
No doubt it's a very stressful job, but my point is that a nurse generally has better job security than most jobs. In today's age, that's a massively important factor when so many employers treat employees like they're disposable. It's also not exactly a job that can be outsourced nor automated, two factors that I think men have overlooked in the past when the odds of getting a decent paying job in other "more manly" (big eye roll) sectors were more common.
Thought this was going to be some bait but it's a very informative website. Thank you for sharing!
Why are women so underrepresented in tech?
A (bigoted) thing I noticed -
None of the software devs I know personally who contribute to FOSS are women. Open source contributions are the most gender neutral thing I can imagine, but the women (developers) in my life just don't seem into it.
To be fair most men aren't, but it provoked a thought that zero women are. It could very well suggest there's more than sexism at play, and more to do with personality traits, than DEI trainers would lead on
(I know there's lots of FOSS projects, including Asahi Linux, largely pioneered by women. I even know some women online I've met through FOSS, the point is merely about those I know in person)
Nah, it's not that at all. Women are just as analytic and capable of working through high level theory as men. It's just a slog to show up to a course or lab or office and be the only girl there. Most just avoid it because they can foresee how it's gonna go down. Getting into 'girly' interests feels safe before you even start because you're guaranteed to be surrounded by women who empathize with you.
It’s just a slog to show up to a course or lab or office and be the only girl there. Most just avoid it because they can foresee how it’s gonna go down. Getting into ‘girly’ interests feels safe before you even start because you’re guaranteed to be surrounded by women who empathize with you.
Why does that feel so relatable?
Why don't women contribute to FOSS? No body knows if you are male or female unless you tell them.
Because the classes to learn programming in and the offices to get hired in are male dominated? FOSS doesn't exist in a vacuum, it's often contributed to by people already in tech jobs (cause people need money to live). Rust, for example, has a large contingent of devs who work for Amazon. If women aren't getting tech jobs then we likely aren't going to be doing FOSS on the side either. Skills take time to learn.
Why are so few men kindergarten teachers? Because they're from a young age not even told that it's a valid option for a man. Same for women in tech.
They exist, I know a woman dev (German) from the Vivaldi community, also one of the devs of the Andisearch is a woman (CEO and Cofunder) https://twitter.com/MiamiAngela
Is any of these products FLOSS?
This is a fantastic website, thank you. I've shared it with a number of women I know who are research scientists.
might as well just title it with web without white women
What?