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Software Engineer Liz Bennett Talks About Being a Woman in a Nearly All Male Workplace (Video)
This conversation was generated by a post Eric S. Raymond published on his "Armed and Dangerous" blog that said, "...if you are any kind of open-source leader or senior figure who is male, do not be alone with any female, ever, at a technical conference. Try to avoid even being alone, ever, because there is a chance that a 'women in tech' advocacy group is going to try to collect your scalp." Eric later wrote a post about how Social Justice Warriors may be more of a problem than the problems they complain about.
Whoa! Predatory women in tech trying to entrap people like (and including) Linus Torvalds the way an old-time private eye got the goods on an errant husband as part of a divorce case? Scary! And worrying about thoughtcrime, too? Oh my! But Liz Bennett is an actual software engineer who works at Loggly in San Francisco. She writes for her company's blog when she's not writing Java code, has a (not very active) GitHub account, and plays bassoon. And her attitude is similar to the one espoused by ESR in the second post (above): write great code -- and if you do, they (for any value of they) have no right to be negative about you, period. And, she says, before you take a job you should be sure the company is a good "fit" for you and doesn't harbor people who will work to bring you down -- which is great advice for anyone, in any field of endeavor.
Whoa! Predatory women in tech trying to entrap people like (and including) Linus Torvalds the way an old-time private eye got the goods on an errant husband as part of a divorce case? Scary! And worrying about thoughtcrime, too? Oh my! But Liz Bennett is an actual software engineer who works at Loggly in San Francisco. She writes for her company's blog when she's not writing Java code, has a (not very active) GitHub account, and plays bassoon. And her attitude is similar to the one espoused by ESR in the second post (above): write great code -- and if you do, they (for any value of they) have no right to be negative about you, period. And, she says, before you take a job you should be sure the company is a good "fit" for you and doesn't harbor people who will work to bring you down -- which is great advice for anyone, in any field of endeavor.
Software engineering is a field in computer science with a focus on applying engineering principles to software development. It is well known that software does not yet have a methodical tool set similar to that of classic engineering disciplines, but it is called software engineering, so you will just have to get over it. Mind you, "proper" engineering didn't start out all rigorous and responsible either. Also, way off topic.
Whether it's a good idea to avoid them is based on the danger. It isn't just the number of malicious women that affects the danger. The danger is *also* affected by how easy it is for them to set up a compromising situation. The current sociopolitical climate is not very friendly to presumption of innocence or believing a man's word and has a very broad definition of harassment--which makes setting up a compromising situation easy, and increases the danger.
(Also, while because a random woman is no more likely to be malicious than anyone else, a woman who wants to be alone with you is not random.)
Women in software keep calling bullshit on that and people just keep repeating it. Funny how for people so obsessed with women they never seem to actually listen to any...
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
Oh. OH. Ok, I'm only comfortable if there are fat people around me so I don't feel insecure about my weight. Can I now force my employer to hire a few? We needn't go to 50%, I'm not that insecure, but how about just replacing the guys in my group with fatsos? They needn't be able to do jack shit for all I care, as long as they make me feel good.
Sorry, but has the world lost its marbles?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I'm a dyed-in-the-wool left-wing liberal through and through, I love socialism and I want equal opportunity for men and women. But I groan every time I see a woman being celebrated for being a software 'engineer' or somesuch when there is never such praise for men. And it always seems to be from people who are looking to push an agenda. No hard feelings on Ms. Bennet. I'm sure she's a wonderful young lady.
A fool and his hard drive are soon parted.
Er, I'm not. His open source contributions aren't exactly that impressive. He spends more time towards the community than actually writing code. He's not an amazing software engineer.
Well done, you finally admitted that there is a problem. That's the first step.
Congratulations, you just shit on the board, knocked over the pieces, and declared victory. Denial is the first stage of grief. Guess what? The problem with IT isn't too few females, it's too many men. Get the men who don't actually love IT out of the field and these problems will largely solve themselves as hiring pressure from IT departments brings in women who do. Women are smart enough not to enter a field that won't reward them. This is the part where you speculate wildly as to why.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"