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You've Got Male: Amazon's Growth Impacting Seattle Dating Scene

reifman (786887) writes "San Francisco's gender imbalance is so bad that a startup recently proposed flying women in from New York City for dates. But, if you're a straight male thinking of moving to Seattle to work in technology, think again. Seattle's gender ratio is even more imbalanced and it's about to get much worse for men. Amazon is building out enough space to employ 5% of the city population and its workforce is 75 percent male. By the end of 2014, Seattle will have 130 single men for every 100 single women."

59 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds like a Marketing opportunity ladies! by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tell me ladies, are you not very attractive, given to big glasses and serious introspection?
    COME TO SILICON VALLEY, learn useless coding techniques, give out buggy code and ask the nerdiest soon-to-be-billionaire to help you grow in the profession.
    After the divorce, you won't ever have to work again!

    1. Re:Sounds like a Marketing opportunity ladies! by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, it's more like work long hours with your partner to create a dual income family and still be unable to afford a decent house close to work. Occasionally you will meet someone who has a friend who knows someone who made enough money to retire early.

  2. But the real question is.. by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Will it have 13 men per 10 women? 26 men per 20 women?

    Will it even have... 30% more men than women???

    1. Re:But the real question is.. by harvestsun · · Score: 5, Funny

      1,300,000,000 men to every 1,000,000,000 women!
      That's three hundred million men!
      BIG NUMBERS BETTER.

    2. Re:But the real question is.. by immaterial · · Score: 5, Funny

      1.3 men for every woman. Of course, the women see through this - the extra 0.3 he's claiming is typical male exaggeration.

    3. Re:But the real question is.. by maharvey · · Score: 2

      What, like MIME?

    4. Re:But the real question is.. by RCL · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, it will have 1.3 men per one woman. Roughly one man and one Javascript programmer per each woman.

  3. Which one? by stkris · · Score: 2

    As a woman I think this must be great news! But as a foreigner - should I aim for Seattle or San Fransisco?

    1. Re:Which one? by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 4, Funny

      As a woman I think this must be great news! But as a foreigner - should I aim for Seattle or San Fransisco?

      If you're a foreigner, I'd recommend treating the world as your oyster. Personally, I can vouch for the rogueish good looks, sense of humour, and alcohol tolerance of Irish men.

      But if you're in a pinch, I guess there are a few expats in Seattle and San Francisco.

    2. Re:Which one? by khr · · Score: 3, Funny

      should I aim for Seattle or San Fransisco?

      I don't know much about San Fransisco, but I do know the weather in Seattle, while uncomfortably dry is less so than most other cities... If I had to pick between them, I'd probably go for whichever gets more annual rainfall.

    3. Re:Which one? by pauljlucas · · Score: 2

      San Francisco's housing costs are insane. Pick Seattle unless you've got at least a $100K income.

      --
      If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
  4. Relationship-quality male ratio sorely lacking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ever date one of those guys at Amazon? All work and no play.

  5. We need to fix the root cause by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Queue the legion of people who will insist that Seattle companies be forced to hire less-qualified people who happen to be women.

    If this bothers you: stop telling little girls that they're pretty, and instead tell them that they're smart. Don't ask them their favorite princess, ask them what they want to be when they grow up.

    1. Re:We need to fix the root cause by Grishnakh · · Score: 4, Funny

      stop telling little girls that they're pretty, and instead tell them that they're smart. Don't ask them their favorite princess, ask them what they want to be when they grow up.

      These suggestions are un-American to the point of being treasonous.

    2. Re:We need to fix the root cause by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      My older daughter wants to be a princess when she grows up. My attempt to steer her into mathematics is so far a failure. I still have hope for my younger daughter. I've taken away her dolls and replaced them with legos and erector sets. She cries about it and says she hates me. I guess she just doesn't understand I'm liberating her from the Patriarchy.

    3. Re:We need to fix the root cause by epyT-R · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Stop blaming men for the lack of equal outcome. Stop telling men what is 'proper' to look for in a mate. Stop blaming them as the default problem when women aren't seen in the same numbers in a given context. In fact, stop lying about men, period. If women are intrinsically equal, they don't NEED help as they can fend for themselves.. Most women aren't interested in technology for itself, only what it can do for them, so even with incentives, you're not going to find a 50/50 split. This is ok as men and women are as different psychologically as they are biologically.

      You know, maybe you should start respecting their diversity and their right to choose other paths. I tire of this leftist equal-opportunity-must-beget-equal-outcome-else-discrimination fallacy.

    4. Re:We need to fix the root cause by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Don't praise kids for being smart, it becomes a major part of their identity and whenever some situation comes along that they fail to resolve it can mess them up and they will avoid even attempting things that can result in them feeling not smart. Praise them for working hard, etc.

    5. Re:We need to fix the root cause by jythie · · Score: 2

      Well, we already have a hiring and promotion process in corporate culture that favors less qualified people who happen to be men.

    6. Re:We need to fix the root cause by epyT-R · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Alright, but that means no more privilege for women either:

      1. No more chattel, alimony, maternity leave, her body/right/choice is his responsibility etc. Women have to live without the privilege men are currently compelled to give them in order for men to truly see them as equals.

      2. No more subjecting men to coquettish behavior in order to get them to clean up after her mess (I've seen this one go down a lot at work, especially when she knows she's attractive). Don't tell me that women are toothless victims in the work place. It's sexual manipulation all the same. Conversely, we could let up on the draconian 'anti harrassment' policies and let both sexes feel more comfortable acting like human beings at work. The latter is my preference, but it requires that women quit playing the crocodile tear victim act when propositioned by a man they don't like/find 'creepy', and expecting society (mainly other men) to white knight for her (get him fired, kick the crap out of him etc).

      3. No more male space vs female space. No more 'invade-male-space-and-make-it-female-for-great-social-justice' either. If most of the employees are male, deal with it instead of calling it out as 'oppression', just as you expect men to accept female space. They are different and, in many ways, incompatible. If a women is going into a male dominated field, she should expect not to find female space all that often.. Same thing if a man goes into nursing. Both sexes need to make their choices and live with the positive and negative outcomes. Neither one should be obligated to shield the other from this.

      4. No more hair trigger, life ruining, over the top responses to mere accusations of misconduct. No more 'dear colleague' letters from politicians pushing this. In fact, it's time for the state to stop passing legislation that picks the winners and losers solely on the attributes that aren't supposed to matter.

      Once that's in place, I'd be more open to viewing the sexes as equal, and feel more comfortable treating women's work output and interaction as that of a human being instead of a goddess just to avoid getting fired. I don't know if you're reasonable or not, but a lot of the women I have run across at work do think of themselves as above reproach, and play the victim card when they're challenged. Society's hypocritical status quo encourages it en masse.

    7. Re:We need to fix the root cause by Nutria · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Invent a DNA-manipulating machine, jump in the (original) Way Back Machine *with* the DNA-manipulating machine. Travel back to the origin of class Mammalia, and fiddle with all the bits of DNA that cause males to be on average relatively bigger and relatively more aggressive, while females are on average relatively smaller and relatively more nurturing.

      Of course, then we wouldn't exist (the changes would be so great and so ancient that Mammalia would be *radically* different), but that's ok, because we're evil planet-rapers anyway.

      Seriously, though: find me a culture, any culture, where the males are feminized, and I'll show you a not very successful culture.

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    8. Re:We need to fix the root cause by schnell · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The problem is all those damn Disney movies parents use as babysitters.

      Not necessarily. When we had our first girl, my wife and I deliberately kept her away from all things Disney and princess-y to avoid just this situation.

      Guess what happened? By age two, she was already trying to wear mommy's high heels and had firmly decided her future vocation would be fairy ballerina - all without ever having seen a Disney/Barbie/whatever TV show, not having any dress-up dolls, or any of the other stereotypical toys that I had always assumed were what caused the gender role identification in young girls. It turns out that some little girls just love "girly" things because it's baked into their DNA somewhere.

      --
      "95% of all Slashdot .sig quotes are incorrect or completely fabricated." -Benjamin Franklin
    9. Re:We need to fix the root cause by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 2

      I've taken away her dolls and replaced them with legos and erector sets.

      That seems questionable. The last think you want her interested in anytime soon is erections.

    10. Re:We need to fix the root cause by PPH · · Score: 2

      less-qualified people who happen to be women.

      And that's why there isn't a problem for many guys. With an attitude like that*, there's a whole class of men that have just removed themselves from the dating pool. The rest of us thank you.

      *Very common in the IT and engineering fields.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    11. Re:We need to fix the root cause by maharvey · · Score: 2

      If I had points I'd mod this up five times.

  6. Well.. by cyberchondriac · · Score: 4, Funny

    I suppose if you're a gay male that sounds like Utopia. Welcome to Seattle, the new San Francisco.
    The Space Needle will take on new allegorical significance as a monument!

    --

    Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  7. Even worse just outside Seattle... by xfade551 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Everett, Tacoma-Lakewood-Puyallup, and Kitsap County have massive military populations (figure around 80-90% male for the military subpopulation). There's a tendency for the junior enlisted men to marry the local girls right out of high school, then they move away with their young wives on their next assignment. (These women often divorce their husbands when they find a place they like better than their hometown). ...And around 50% of the women left behind aren't worth dating.

    1. Re:Even worse just outside Seattle... by pr0fessor · · Score: 4, Funny

      I grew up next to a military base and can confirm that and as a freshman in high school I could not get a date with any girls at my school because they were all dating soldiers. Instead their 19-22yr old wives were all very lonely... I once took a 22yr old soldier's wife to a school dance because, I knew he would be there with his 16yr old date.

  8. Re:you've got male by misexistentialist · · Score: 5, Funny

    Give every programmer a secretary?

  9. Re:Presumption by NotDrWho · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why the presumption that Amazon's new hires will be 75% male?

    Well, about 85% of CS grads today are male. But if it makes you feel better, they could hire more women for the packing floor.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  10. Already mostly debunked... by thatseattleguy · · Score: 5, Informative
    The Seattle Times has already debunked this, pointing out that the author(*) of that original article coflated two data sets that used completely different methodologies for the "number of single men" metric and so cannot be compared. Not that that will make any difference; I sense this will have the same life of its own as the "chances of a woman getting married after 40 are worse than that of her getting killed by a terrorist" meme that went around a decade or so ago, because it provides a convenient external explanation for a wholly internal failure.
    .

    /tsg/

    (*) Said author of the original debunked article also has the same user name as the submitter here - such a coincidence! I also note his last Slashdot submission was the also-debunked "OMG! Skydiver catches meteor falling on camera!" thing that was proven false a few days later. The Force is not strong with this one, fellow Jedi...

    1. Re:Already mostly debunked... by thatseattleguy · · Score: 4, Informative
      More importantly, the above-referenced Times blog post points out that the gender imbalance in Seattle is nowhere near as bad as other cities that are tech hubs, like San Jose. Among the 50 largest metro areas in the US, Seattle apparently ranks at only 15th for predominance of males.
      .

      Noting, too: the original Reifman article makes the truly odd presumption that because Amazon's _current_ workforce is 75% male, that all new hires will necessarily follow this same 3-to-1 male-to-female gender ratio - something I very much doubt. A company growing as fast and expanding into new, diverse areas like Amazon is, is likely to see a greatly more gender-balanced workforce than it had in its early tech-dominated early days. Maybe the new hires will not be 1:1 male:female - but certainly not the 3:1 of the past.

    2. Re:Already mostly debunked... by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 2

      I sense this will have the same life of its own as the "chances of a woman getting married after 40 are worse than that of her getting killed by a terrorist" meme that went around a decade or so ago,

      So that's why so many women perked up when 9/11 happened!

  11. This is just within the city limits, though by WilliamGeorge · · Score: 2

    Seattle proper is actually relatively small, and surrounded by dozens of smaller cities and towns. I would wager that the overall metro area has close to a 1:1 ratio, but that young, single men tend to move into the city to be close to work, especially before starting a family. Housing in the city is expensive, but more livable for someone in a 1-bedroom or studio apartment. Once you need more space than that, the suburbs are much more appealing.

    --
    William George
  12. Mercer Girls by MDMurphy · · Score: 4, Informative

    If this is not debunked, then it's not a new issue for Seattle.

    The Mercer Girls were an 1860s project of Asa Shinn Mercer, an American who lived in Seattle, who decided to "import" women to the Pacific Northwest to balance the gender ratio.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

    Which inspired the TV series:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

  13. Re:H1Bs? by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 2

    I suspect this isn't so bad for American men as the OP lets on. Consider the effect of H1Bs on these numbers... I live in Seattle; all the large tech companies here (and even a lot of the smaller ones) hire a disproportionate number of H1B holders, most from India. Most Indians aren't after American women, they either come here with a wife already, or their family back in India arranges a marriage, they fly home for a few weeks and come back married.

    I know plenty of single girls, and I've never had a problem finding a date. It does require leaving work at work and going out to places where other single people congregate, and it helps to not be a total jackass, but I don't think we're really anywhere near as unbalanced as this would lead one to believe.

    I think you missed the point -- the ratio is projected to get around 30% worse in the near future. Same number of women, 30% more jackasses.

  14. Re:How does Amazon manage to attract job seekers? by Altus · · Score: 2

    When the contacted me about a job in Seattle after I checked the box on their application that said I would not relocate I ignored the email. I got another one from the same recruiter a week later that was acting as though I were the rude one and that she had done me a favor by showing interest in hiring me for a totally undefined job in a location that I had no interest in moving to.

    I have no idea why anybody works for them... they sure don't make the company seem appealing.

    --

    "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

  15. yes! 17 yr old, nobody has asked her what she want by raymorris · · Score: 2

    > If this bothers you: stop telling little girls that they're pretty, and instead tell them that they're smart. Don't ask them their favorite princess, ask them what they want to be when they grow up.

    This! I asked my ex-wife's 17 year old daughter what she wanted to do for a living and they way she looked at me, it seems nobody had ever asked her that question before. She has no idea. My daughter, who is now one week old, will be able toanswer that question by the time she's five (and change her mind six times after that).

  16. I've found the perfect solution by sandbagger · · Score: 2

    I gave up.

    Look, masturbation's more efficient anyway.

    --
    ---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
    1. Re:I've found the perfect solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      You sound like a real wanker.

  17. Re:you've got male by tylikcat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Like, say, men who make random generalizations about women?

  18. nothing wrong with that by slashmydots · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So it pushed ugly, unhealthy, and otherwise undesirable males out of the gene pool. Good! Have you seen what happens to the genetic disadvantages and diseases and average IQ in small, isolated communities? It's the same thing when it's 1:1. Imbalance in either direction ensures that adaptation and fitness improvements occur.

  19. Pffft... That's not a bad ratio by EmagGeek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When I was going to Georgia Tech, I would have given anything for a 1.3:1 ratio.

  20. Re:0.0002% are H1B by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Considering that the number of H1Bs is limited to 0.0002% of the population, they might make a good scapegoat, but tthey make essentially zero impact on anything.

    It may be .0002% of the total US population, but it's not a uniform distribution across all states, cities, and companies.

  21. Irrelevant by Fredde87 · · Score: 2

    Its irrelevant, at least 30 of those men will be tech works and we all know that us nerds don't have girlfriends so that leaves 100 guys for a 100 women...

  22. Re:you've got male by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 4, Funny

    >Men should have jobs avoiding people.

    I think you're projecting your social phobia onto other men. Many of us are fine dealing with people.

  23. English usage tip by OglinTatas · · Score: 2

    a lot of women = a number of human females greater than an arbitrary number larger than 2, depending on context

    a lot of Woman = one human female with a big personality or big physical measurements of one sort or another, or both.

  24. Irony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    A company called Amazon has a mostly male work force.

    1. Re:Irony by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 2

      A queen and the worker bees, although they are all female with actual bees. I propose cage fights and sting matches for the singles to prune out the unfit individuals.

      Well, yeah. Let's see you try finding office space for those huge Amazonian women!

    2. Re:Irony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's OK, the real Amazon river basin has about 1.06 women for every man.

      (captcha: arboreal)

  25. Re:yes! 17 yr old, nobody has asked her what she w by pkinetics · · Score: 2

    Over analyzing the idea.

    There are 40 year olds who live in their parent's basements and have no idea what they will do.

    There are 40 year olds who are very successful, who still don't know what they want to do.

    Very few people know precisely what they want to do.

    But by the time they are juniors in high school, they should have some set of skills that can help them move forward as opposed to "being a princess". That is a very limited position, with few available openings, and an excessive amount of competition.

  26. Re:you've got male by Vintermann · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is 2014. It is not 1974.

    Funny you should say that, as the rate of female computer science graduates was apparently higher back then.

    Whatever biology says, we see that the gender ratio varies greatly with time and place. Our biology hasn't changed much since the 70s, so we can at the very least get the gender ratio back to what it was then. Probably, our biology is flexible enough to support pretty much any gender ratio.

    This means we can probably change things, if we really go for it. The question is should we? The issue is that a society can score high on gender egalitarianism, and high on opportunities for everyone, and yet that seems only to make people make more traditional choices when it comes to education. What does that mean?

    I haven't got an answer. But this is a "should" question - so no naturalistic fallacy, please.

    --
    xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
  27. and so the stereotypes abide... by globaljustin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    not against women...the stereotypes about how "tech" work has to be autism-inducing, basement dewelling, spaghetti coding, geek competition

    1. Culturally: Tech jobs, even coding, involves directly working with the people in your workplace. Even if you telecommute you still do tons of human interaction...furthermore, all tech is ultimately for the *human user*

    2. Geeky Culture: "geek culture" has never been more popular among women, especially smart younger women who would be the logical next cadre of tech new hires. The problem is stereotypes and systemic dead weight...not 'geek culture' or women's access to it...also: more women gamers now than ever

    3. Catch 22: Men who tend to make assumptions will tend to assume the wrong causes for women's behavior...especially men in tech who don't usually work with women

    4. Peer pressure: Everything in our media tells women that if they want to get married they have to **look like a pornstar** and be permiscous but not "slutty" and find the right man before they turn 30...when a woman says she thinks she can have a career, party, look good AND have a family their friends will try to dissuade them.

    get a clue...everyone...all techies....everywhere....talk to women about this...not just the opinionated ones...ask them how they feel and you'll seem I'm right

    tech alienates women...it's a dorky version of a Country Club mentality

    --
    Thank you Dave Raggett
  28. Re:easy answer by Richy_T · · Score: 3, Funny

    Are they Amazon Prime eligible?

  29. you started college in your late 20s? by raymorris · · Score: 2

    > couldn't have answered that I wanted to go and do a PhD in computer engineering, or that I wanted to move to Colorado.
    > In fact, when I was 22 I still couldn't have told you that.

    I bet that at 17 you knew you wanted to go to college and study computers. That's what you wanted to do when you were 17 or so. Maybe later you decided exactly how MUCH college - a PhD. I doubt that at 17 you had no idea what direction you wanted to head. I say that because seventeen year olds with no plan whatsoever are more likely to end up with convictions than with PhDs.

  30. Re:you've got male by VortexCortex · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Cross Cultural Sex Differences put men as more introverted. The sex differences are larger in more egalitarian societies. Probably because men and women are freer to do what they like.

    Perhaps do a split second of research before jumping to conclusions? Your subtle shaming of the introverted is equally as retarding as the phobia you're projecting.

  31. Re:you've got male by linuxrocks123 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It has nothing to do with a "strange geek religion of human equality". What it has to do with is that most evolutionary psychology is non-falsifiable. You can't use it to make predictions. Here's an example:

    Observation: Women go for geek guys.
    Reason: Humans evolved intelligence, because intelligence confers many advantages, so displays of intelligence attract mates.

    Observation: Women don't go for geek guys.
    Reason: Geek guys tend to work out less, because they're so obsessed with technology, and physical fitness is a good predictor of health, which is a good predictor of good genes, so women tend to prefer people who work out more. Also, intelligence has only recently become important to human success, so women haven't had enough time to evolve attraction based on intelligence.

    Do you get it? Evolutionary psychology "sounds nice", but it's so soft that it very often (perhaps not always, but very often) falls on the "bullshit" side of the science/bullshit line. Many smart people on Slashdot can see that, so we don't buy into it.

    It's not all bullshit. I remember reading one study in AP Psychology in high school where they actually did a bona fide scientific experiment related to evolutionary psychology, using it to make a hypothesis that they didn't know the truth of, and then testing it. I don't remember at all what it was, unfortunately, but I remember being impressed.

    One other aspect that turns us off about evolutionary psychology is that a lot of (typically amateur ) proponents of it seem to promote the naturalistic fallacy: even if you're a dick because evolution made you that way, it doesn't mean you're not a dick.

    Also, fuck beta.

    --
    vi ~/.emacs # I'm probably going to Hell for this.
  32. Where is .... by PPH · · Score: 2

    ... Asa Mercer when we need him?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  33. Re:yes! 17 yr old, nobody has asked her what she w by PPH · · Score: 2

    Why the fuck should a 17 year old be able to answer that?

    Goals. It may not be the same thing they want to do when they are 22 or 30. But they are thinking about something and working toward it.

    Dating hint for all you high school guys: Ask a girl what she would study in college and do as a profession. If she doesn't have an immediate answer, run like hell.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  34. Re:you've got male by Cederic · · Score: 2

    I'm intrigued that the feminists aren't demanding that Amazon employ more women to do a low paid physically demanding and boring job.

    Guess they don't want equality after all.