How to get more women in IT and technical fields.

[BoberFett]

Also get rid of the sexist idiots that infest the industry. Because that is where the real problem is, not parents not buying a chemistry set.

LOL, SJWs.

 

[BoberFett]

It also helps to not sexual harass them as well. My wife is a computer engineer and she and all the other female engineers I have meet all have crazy stories.

1 guy told one women to write back on a different e-mail account as the company was watching him due to other complaints.
Another would keep calling/writing and even flew from another state when she said no and would not write back any more.
A married guy just bluntly said "I want to have sex with you..." during work and was dead serious.
etc...

Are all you male engineers pervs with no skills in dating?

This. The problem with women in IT is the men in IT. 30 years of being "that nerdy job" for "that guy who doesn't like people" has taken its toll. And a lot of just gets overlooked because, well, "oh, he's just the weird IT guy."

If IT people and engineers had half the social skills of the average Walmart employee, the industry would be 50/50 in five years.

What the hell companies do you work for? In my 20 years in IT, I've NEVER seen a company where ANY of this "boy's club" nonsense has happened.

 

[Train]

What the hell companies do you work for? In my 20 years in IT, I've NEVER seen a company where ANY of this "boy's club" nonsense has happened.

Ya me neither, I only ever hear about this shit on the internet.

 

[BoberFett]

Ya me neither, I only ever hear about this shit on the internet.

I've come to the conclusion that it's an agenda driven urban myth.

 

[Jimzz]

I've come to the conclusion that it's an agenda driven urban myth.

Yea all the complaints and lawsuits are just made up. Male engineers have a stereotype but its all a big joke and never happens.


My wife and the others I have personally known have worked for large companies like QUALCOMM/IBM/INTEL/etc...

 

[K1052]

Yea all the complaints and lawsuits are just made up. Male engineers have a stereotype but its all a big joke and never happens.


My wife and the others I have personally known have worked for large companies like QUALCOMM/IBM/INTEL/etc...

Don't you understand that since I have no (concious) personal experience with this it must not be actually happening anywhere?

 

[Train]

Yea all the complaints and lawsuits are just made up. Male engineers have a stereotype but its all a big joke and never happens.


My wife and the others I have personally known have worked for large companies like QUALCOMM/IBM/INTEL/etc...

none of that refutes "Agenda driven"

 

[Train]

One of the biggest discrimination suits just recently concluded (Former reddit CEO Ellen Pao, google it). She lost. As it turns out, she just sucked at her job, and the company proved it with oodles of evidence at trial.

But you would never know by listening to the media. Tons and tons of narratives about the "good ol' boys club" of silicon valley. THen the facts surface... you are actually twice as likely to get hired if you are a woman at places like Google.... but the fact that google has majority male engineers of course means there is some sort of discrimination... cuz SJW logic.

 

[BoberFett]

Yea all the complaints and lawsuits are just made up. Male engineers have a stereotype but its all a big joke and never happens.


My wife and the others I have personally known have worked for large companies like QUALCOMM/IBM/INTEL/etc...

Don't you understand that since I have no (concious) personal experience with this it must not be actually happening anywhere?

On the flipside, you guys heard one story about one company somewhere that your mother's neighbor's friend's daughter worked at that had a problem, so obviously it's a massive problem everywhere and an industry wide conspiracy by the patriarchy to keep women out of tech?

 

[Phanuel]

Why would you even want to be an engineer when you could just have sex with one (once a month or less) and spend their money instead?

It's a certain aspie mentality to be an excellent engineer in the first place. You're not going to find the most well adjusted people in that population sample.

 

[K1052]

On the flipside, you guys heard one story about one company somewhere that your mother's neighbor's friend's daughter worked at that had a problem, so obviously it's a massive problem everywhere and an industry wide conspiracy by the patriarchy to keep women out of tech?

I live in SF. I'm surrounded by tech people 24/7. My husband works for a large tech company. My best friend is a lawyer at a different large tech company. All our friends work for various tech companies. Nobody will privately dispute that this isn't a real problem and can cite multiple examples.

 

[Train]

 

[Spungo]

Umm, nature vs nurture is hotly debated, but I don't know anyone that says it's all nature and no nurture when it comes to a child's development.

Hotly debated by who? Feminists? It certainly isn't scientists. Researchers have twin studies going back decades and spanning the world that conclusively show nature is the dominant factor. Some of the similarities between separated twins are freaky.
http://www.livescience.com/47288-twin-study-importance-of-genetics.html

One of the more interesting and important findings was that male gayness is genetic. If one identical twin was gay, the odds of the other being gay were very high. Of course, gay people have been saying that for decades. "I was born this way!" Indeed they were, and research confirms it. It's not a learned behavior. Parents can try to brainwash their children, but it won't do anything. If your son is gay, he's gay. If your daughter likes power tools, she likes power tools. Parents would need to do something traumatic to change that behavior. Maybe refuse to teach her safe use of power tools she accidentally cuts her hand off with a circular saw. Maybe it would be better if parents encouraged their children instead of constantly trying to break their children.

I live in the ghetto and I ride public transit to work, so I get to see some of the worst parents. It always saddens me when I see parents trying to break children. Do this, don't do that, stop talking, sit still, etc. I remember one mother saying these exact words: "you can't reach it so don't bother trying." What an asshole.

It also helps to not sexual harass them as well. My wife is a computer engineer and she and all the other female engineers I have meet all have crazy stories.

1 guy told one women to write back on a different e-mail account as the company was watching him due to other complaints.
Another would keep calling/writing and even flew from another state when she said no and would not write back any more.
A married guy just bluntly said "I want to have sex with you..." during work and was dead serious.
etc...

Are all you male engineers pervs with no skills in dating?

I guess it depends on field. My field is electrical engineering and I've never dealt with any kind of harassment. It would probably be different if I worked in computer software.

For example, although a far lower percentage of women regularly consume pornography, the women who do (10-20%) tend to view the same "stag" porn as men, not the type of feminist or female friendly porn that is produced for women. Research suggests that these women may be "wired like men" when it comes to sexual proclivities.

Testosterone is known to do this. It's not just women acting like men. It's girly men acting like manly men. Give testosterone to a male feminist and he will immediately start acting douchier, his sexual tastes will change, his hobbies will change, his spoken language will change, his body language will change. It's almost like testosterone is some kind of hormone or something.....

 

[piasabird]

How come so many women are in the nursing field? This proves women can think logically when they want to.

 

[Spungo]

Contrary to some of the assertions in this thread, it is self-evident that nurture plays some role in occupational choices. If this were not the case, there would be the same percentage of women in math and sciences today as there was 50 years ago.

Isn't that the case, basically? I remember maybe 1 or 2 other women taking engineering. That would represent single digit percentages of women in engineering.
That isn't to say society is exactly the same as 50 years ago. We've made some huge progress even if the numbers don't show it. Back 50 years ago, people would probably laugh if I said I wanted to take engineering. Today, women are at least given the chance to shine.

 

[MrPickins]

Hotly debated by who? Feminists? It certainly isn't scientists.

Yeah, as usual, you don't know what you're talking about.

Yes, nature has a large impact, but nurture definitely does as well. That isn't really disputed by anyone with half a brain. The real question is the relative impact of each.

Yes, make her a social outcast. That will help her build her personality.

Not sure if troll or just stupid. Plenty of girls don't play with dolls and are not "social outcasts".

 

[Exophase]

This. The problem with women in IT is the men in IT. 30 years of being "that nerdy job" for "that guy who doesn't like people" has taken its toll. And a lot of just gets overlooked because, well, "oh, he's just the weird IT guy."

If IT people and engineers had half the social skills of the average Walmart employee, the industry would be 50/50 in five years.

And how about negative stereotypes like this? Maybe one reason women are less likely to be in IT because they don't want people to think they're nerds with poor social skills.

 

[IronWing]

How to get more women in IT and technical fields.

Duh, get them drunk.

 

[Moonbeam]

I've come to the conclusion that it's an agenda driven urban myth.

Yeah, but then you also never notice how cut off you are from your feminine side.

 

[BoberFett]

Yeah, but then you also never notice how cut off you are from your feminine side.

Hardly. I wear lingerie all the time.

 

[Jeff7]

Sucks that this is a Verizon PR stunt...
...but I got to see plenty of that attitude growing up.

Isn't that the case, basically? I remember maybe 1 or 2 other women taking engineering. That would represent single digit percentages of women in engineering.
That isn't to say society is exactly the same as 50 years ago. We've made some huge progress even if the numbers don't show it. Back 50 years ago, people would probably laugh if I said I wanted to take engineering. Today, women are at least given the chance to shine.

My own graduating class in my major: 100% male.
The other engineering majors had a very small number of them.

 

[Imp]

My own graduating class in my major: 100% male.
The other engineering majors had a very small number of them.

Civil engineering, one of the "lesser" engineering subjects usually with more females, pretty sure 2/3 of my class was male. Out of 50+ people total, probably 5 of the females were white -- they hung out and sat together all the time.

At my first real job, big company: I'd say 1/3 to 1/2 of the hires were female. However, my company probably practiced affirmative action.

 

[brianmanahan]

the answer is obvious: we need more attractive men to work in technology

that way, the women will not be able to resist

 

[Murloc]

Also get rid of the sexist idiots that infest the industry. Because that is where the real problem is, not parents not buying a chemistry set.

people pick their university course while in high school, before most of them have had any contact with the industry.
Women are already missing at that point.

So that's not it.

Maybe there's a nerd stereotype about IT that can keep teen-agers away, but there are no stereotypes about mechanical or civil engineers.

Also in my high school the physics and maths track already had engineering-like ratios. So it's not about the workplace. Most women simply prefer biology to physics.

 

[brianmanahan]

That isn't to say society is exactly the same as 50 years ago. We've made some huge progress even if the numbers don't show it. Back 50 years ago, people would probably laugh if I said I wanted to take engineering. Today, women are at least given the chance to shine.

oddly though, i have worked with way more older women (50-65) in programming that younger

i was at a shop that had mainframes though, so many had worked there for 20-30 years and were planning to retire there.