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Berners-Lee Challenges 'Stupid' Male Geek Culture

Posted by Zonk on from the here-here dept.

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."

4 of 693 comments (clear)

  1. Article thin on details by radarjd · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wow, the article has basically no more information than the summary. It doesn't tell us what "stupid male geek culture" is, or what the objectionable elements of it are. It's hard to have more than an emotional reply when the article contains so little description of what is actually wrong...

  2. Dumb article by StarvingSE · · Score: 3, Informative

    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. You're always going to have idiots, both male and female. I don't think this is the rule.

    I work as a software developer, and being male I am the minority. We have 3 men and 7 women on my team, and none of us act stupid. I would say most teams here have at least 50% women.

    This sounds like ranting that has no factual basis what-so-ever. Don't bother reading the article, it contains no more info than what is contained in the summary.

    --
    I got nothin'
    1. Re:Dumb article by geekgirlandrea · · Score: 3, Informative

      I think that depends on where you work to a great extent. At my employer, I'm one of only two female programmers in the company. It's been like that pretty much everywhere I've seen.

  3. Re:I think women are better than that by Anonymous+Female · · Score: 4, Informative

    At least as a male you can get into it if you play the game. As a female I'm pretty much locked out of the old boys club. I'll never even get to be buddy buddy with my boss.

    I have a good friend at work who sometimes repeats to me the horrible conversations that occur between the males at work. They talk at the urinals, they fart and laugh about it infront of each other, they tell each other stories about whatever girls they brought home from the bar, and ugh the worst thing I heard yesterday was my boss likes to go to the strip club and wear thin sweatpants so he can feel everything! (/vomit) He's married w/ a wife and kid. This is the kind of stuff I won't ever be a part of that precludes me from being in the club.