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Uber Manager Told Female Engineer That 'Sexism is Systemic in Tech' (theguardian.com)
Sam Levin, writing for The Guardian: Uber is facing yet another discrimination scandal after a manager who was recruiting a female engineer defended the company by saying "sexism is systemic in tech." On 14 March, an engineering manager at Uber tried to recruit Kamilah Taylor, a senior software engineer at another Silicon Valley company, for a developer position at the San Francisco ride-hailing startup, which is struggling to recover from a major sexual harassment controversy. Taylor, who provided copies of her LinkedIn messages with the Guardian, responded by saying: "In light of Uber's questionable business practices and sexism, I have no interest in joining." Taylor was stunned by the reply she received from Uber. The manager, who is a woman, wrote: "I understand your concern. I just want to say that sexism is systemic in tech and other industries. I've met some of the most inspiring people here."
That sounds like the recruiter is agreeing/commiserating with her. Nothing to see here?
Please stop putting a "sexism in tech" story on the front page. three times a week. Please! I know you get more clicks and ad views but I beg you not to descend to that level. It's all been said. Every possible part of this debate has been had. Dozens of times. Enough is enough. Gut check: Are you ready to become a Gawker in your quest for shareholder value? I love Slashdot and I don't want to see it go down that road. Down the path to posting more inflammatory posts for clicks or worse, to push a narrative. Don't do this to me. Don't do this to yourself. You're better than this.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Sexism is systemic, period.
That doesn't mean it should be tolerated, at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Just look at the last election. While everyone screams racism, they overlook the even more prevalent hatred of women that drove a stunning and ridiculous double-standard in the last election. But then, if we examine our culture's sexism, rather than concentrating on its other ills (racism, poor white-people lashing out, etc.), we'd have to look at why we pushed aside a competent woman in 2008 in favor of an inexperienced black man, who had to learn on the job his first four years, and proved sufficiently weak in his second administration that Russia was able to instill its puppet would-be dictator on his watch.
If we'd confronted our bigotry toward women in '08, we probably wouldn't be in this mess now (and Obama would be starting his first term as president after 8 years as vice-president, with enough experience to hit the ground running). But as always, we'd rather not face uncomfortable truths, and prefer to bury our heads in the sand. Uber, as despicable as the company is, is just a symptom of something deeper. Something we as a culture are still unwilling to face up to.
I've worked in technology for a few years. When I was a floor technician assembling stuff Sexism was less pervasive since there was more gender equality.
When I shifted to IT (network / system admin) it was 99% guys and was quite shocked how nerds could have such filthy mouths and that a lot of the guys had a bizzare nerd bravado I never experienced until entering IT.
More women need to be in hand on tech roles and stop going into sales, client relations, office administration, etc.... When entering the tech industry.
Until then nerd bravado Sexism will remain pervasive.
An easy temp gap fix would be to put these guys back into the sub basement where their conversations can't be overheard anymore. :)
You quote lots of numbers, but you're not talking about software. Women (and people of color) are greatly underrepresented as software engineers.
Sexism is a real issue. It will continue to be while we refuse to acknowledge that.
And men are under representing in nursing and child care.. so what? People are going to choose career paths that interest them. Not being 50/50 is not evidence of a problem.
Your anecdote isn't data. It's nice that you've worked for progressive companies and that you yourself are good about working with women, but it's absolutely a systemic issue. Story after story after story confirms it.
Rather, I think you and the companies you work for are outliers. Congratulations on that; I hope you keep your streak.
Women _CHOOSING_ not to obtain a degree in Software is the problem. That is not sexism, that is a fact with statistics to back the fact. Women are getting far more degrees than men, but are choosing degrees in Psychology, Medical Doctors, Law, Political Science, Journalism, and other fields not related to Software.
Prove to us that you are correct, show me the College discrimination that keeps women away from STEM. I searched, there is no such thing as institutional sexism in College prohibiting women from obtaining a degree related to software. In fact it is quite the opposite. Universities are begging for women to obtain STEM degrees, as is society, as are employers.
Next, prove that degrees don't matter. I have a Mathematics degree. Is the fact that I can't get a job as a MRI specialist or BioChemist related to the fact that I'm being discriminated against, or my _CHOICE_ in degrees? A Law degree does not provide any credentials for STEM.
Lastly, prove to me that women are choosing other fields due to discriminatory aptitude tests which give a lower score to women because "sexism". Aptitude testing is the number one factor for determining a degree choice.
You can't prove any of those things. Go ahead and try to back your allegation with _FACTS_. Something you SJWs seem to despise with a passion.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Your second and third sentences have no basis in reality. There was a massive push to social welfare programs to assist women with College in the later 80s and 90s. This includes assistance with child care so that Single Moms (a massively grown demographic) could go to College and not worry about their kids. Hence the disparity we have today which has 61% of all College students being women. You can't be so delusional that you believe moving women up to 61% of all college students is the result of a year, or even a few years. Then again, it seems like you really can be that delusional.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.