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Sexual Harassment In Tech Is As Old As the Computer Age (ieee.org)
Tekla Perry writes: Historian Marie Hicks, speaking at the Computer History Museum talks about how women computer operators and programmers were driven out of the industry, gives examples of sexual harassment dating back to the days of the Colossus era, and previews her next research. "It's all a matter of power, Hicks pointed out -- and women have never had their share of it," reports IEEE Spectrum. "Women dominated computer programming in its early days because the field wasn't seen as a career, just a something someone could do without a lot of training and would do for only a short period of time. Computer jobs had no room for advancement, so having women 'retire' in their 20s was not seen as a bad thing. And since women, of course, could never supervise men, Hicks said, women who were good at computing ended up training the men who ended up as their managers. But when it became clear that computers -- and computer work -- were important, women were suddenly pushed out of the field."
Hicks has also started looking at the bias baked into algorithms, specifically at when it first crossed from human to computer. The first example she turned up had "something to do with transgender people and the government's main pension computer." She says that when humans were in the loop, petitions to change gender on national insurance cards generally went through, but when the computer came in, the system was "specifically designed to no longer accommodate them, instead, to literally cause an error code to kick out of the processing chain any account of a 'known transsexual.'"
Hicks has also started looking at the bias baked into algorithms, specifically at when it first crossed from human to computer. The first example she turned up had "something to do with transgender people and the government's main pension computer." She says that when humans were in the loop, petitions to change gender on national insurance cards generally went through, but when the computer came in, the system was "specifically designed to no longer accommodate them, instead, to literally cause an error code to kick out of the processing chain any account of a 'known transsexual.'"
When you redefine sexual harassment as any unwanted attempt to connect then sexual harassment is quite common indeed, and I have been sexually harassed by a number of women as well by that definition.
Ah yes, the attempt to downplay and dismiss the concerns of sexual harassment. After all, if they are at fault, then who even needs to worry about any of their complaints?
First off, there's no evidence that Trump or Moore ever did the things they've been accused of. You've fallen for fake news.
But beyond that, it hardly matters. The problem is when you try and move things too far in one direction, the backlash will often move too far in the other direction to try and compensate. Yes, there are some bad behaviors that people are willing to put up with if it means that lesser behaviors are also allowed. Being far too loose in their definition of "sexual harassment", those on the left are causing the rise of a movement that is far too limited in its definition. It's what happens when you try and clamp down on something - "the more you tighten your grip, the more will slip through your fingers."
With no statute of limitation either.
This is one thing that is horribly wrong about sexual harassment.
Putting a limit on this would help to remove the stigma and political blowback that often comes with reporting it.
Nope. It would do absolutely nothing to remove the stigma and blowback that comes with reporting it. There's still people who insist that the only legitimate rape is something that somehow prevents pregnancy.
Sorry, but there's a lot of things that are HORRIBLY WRONG about sexual harassment. It's a long list.
It would also get rid of people coming forward with ancient sexual harassment claims that are often viewed as relevant as dragging 90-year old men into courtrooms for World War II war crimes.
Been there, done that.
And we'll do it again until the last Nazi is dead, and even then, they'll still be anathema.
And we'll also declare the falsely accused to be innocent.
Don't like it? Tough.
We used to have established societal expectations that helped to minimize the suffering of the weaker members.
Where the societal expectation was that the most powerful men would have almost all the women, and where most men's options were limited to prostitutes, rape or taking the shilling to increase the opportunity for either.