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

Tim Berners-Lee is a dude!

[guysmilee]

Tim Berners-Lee is a dude why the hell would I care what he has to say about women in the office ... maybe he's a sensitive 90's guy ... or maybe he just has nothing to right about!

Reverse Reverse Discrimination

[Fierythrasher]

So women face discrimation in the "Stupid Geek Culture"...does that mean that they are discriminated against because they don't like Star Wars, have a 40th level Orc in WOW, and played a Magic User with lame powers in D&D in the 80's? They don't know TSR from WOTC? They could care less how the terminator chip left in 1984 was tehn used to build the terminator itself? Um...Is this discrimination, or simply not wanting to be part of workplace banter? I worked in a fitness center for three years with the common conversations being about how much people bench, what their peak hart rates were, etc. Just becuase I didn't give a damn doesn't mean I was discriminated against...it meant it was the wrong group for me to try and interact socially with.

Re:You can't separate the two completely.

[Tanuki64]

males are more likely to take risks and indulge competition.

And this is the only reason males have on average the better jobs: They are more likely to take risks. When woman whine that they are oh so discriminated they manage it perfectly to blend out all the males who took a risk, failed and landed in the gutter. A place where predominantly men are found.

Re:Biology or Bias?

[corbettw]

I wonder, did that research control for women who try to emulate asshole men? More than likely, those are the ones who get labeled "bitch", as opposed to the women who just act like one of the guys and subsequently earn respect and admiration.

Re:Total Anecdote but....

[cecille]

Oh, and a clever insult at that. Think that one up yourself?

So it's not just a single story anymore, eh? It's a full-out *opinion*. Don't you think that might be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy? I somehow don't think you're going to think much of any woman you come across in the field regardless of the work. You've already expressed your *opinion* on that. Besides you are clearly such a reasonable person to begin with, telling strangers to fuck themselves on a public forum and whatnot, that there's no way you would ever prejudge someone based on their gender. No way. And there's clearly no confirmation bias at work here.