Berners-Lee Challenges 'Stupid' Male Geek Culture

ZDOne wrote with a link to a ZDNet article discussing some comments made by Tim Berners-Lee on the discrimination women face within 'stupid male geek culture'. The respected developer expressed frustration at a culture that would 'disregard the work of capable female engineers, and put others off entering the profession.' From the article: "'It's a complex problem -- we find bias against women by women. There are bits of male geek culture and engineer culture that are stupid. They should realize that they could be alienating people who are smarter and better engineers,' said Berners-Lee. Engineering research facilities that interview candidates based only on how many papers they have had published also risk adding to the problem, according to Berners-Lee, because of an apparent in-built bias against women."

Comments

When I greet new female engineers...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey Jiggles, grab a pad and back that gorgeous butt in here.

Re:What about stupid fashinista culture?

[Gat0r30y]

How often do you see a pasty geek Modeling swimwear?
A lot more than I would like, damn it sucks to be the only photographer for pasty geek swimwear weekly!

Re:What about stupid fashinista culture?

[SIIHP]

"They targetted her, for failing to sustain the essential fundamental stereotype of women in our culture... "

Or maybe it was because she stank.

What am I saying, it must have been rampant unhindered sexism...

Re:Dumb article

[king-manic]

The very short article consisted of Berners-Lee saying that male geeks act stupid, and that causes women to not want to enter the field. It would be nice to have some examples of this so-called stupid behavior. Stupid male ideas that may repel Women from our industry:

1- Women who speak to me for more then a minute must want to date me.
2- If I know more then you in X I must be better then you in every way.
3- Flavor X of utility type Y is the best ever. All else is heresy.
4- 512 gigs of porn is a reasonable item to leave on the public network drive.
5- 80h work weeks is both sane and healthy.
6- Failure to do 80h works weeks is a sign of insufficient work ethic. No matter how much more you actually do during your piddly 40h week.
7- coding skills is directly proportional to Penis size. Penis size is directly proportional to Geek pedantry skills. full implications in both directions.
8- FPS skills are integral for all IT work.
9- Periods induce insanity.
10- If a male manager/supervisor is mad at me I must have screwed up. If a female manager is mad at me it's PMS.

Serious note: I think IT has fewer women because they aren't' encouraged to come into related fields and little more then that. They are taught to value things that most IT jobs would contradict.

Re:What about stupid fashinista culture?

[VorpalRodent]

What does the relative attractiveness of the males have to do with the woman? Personally, I'd be much more interested in where the woman falls on your scale (despite your scale being somewhat limited in scope to "not sexiest - sexiest").

Maybe Leah just feels bad because the sexiest man has something against her. Perhaps if she just set her expectations a little lower, and settle for Frank, who, while not the sexiest, could perhaps be persuaded away from indifference by her whiles (they often come with the classification "the woman", especially if they both are intelligent and are higher on the "not sexiest - sexiest" continuum).

In other news, superlatives are the best!