Should men be in the women in tech conversation?
For the past few years, we’ve all been pushing for more women in the technology field. How to do that is obviously a topic of debate, but one approach has been consistently put into question: should we involve men? In other words, we’ll have ‘men for women in tech’. The past few years have been a trainwreck for the ideas of ‘male allies’.
There are perfectly legitimate reasons to be skeptical of the inclusion of men in the efforts to promote diversity in the field, especially as men have historically added fuel to the fire by being unintentionally sexist- particularly #13 in that link, “Staying quiet when other men do these things”. You might also recall Satya Nadella’s famous Hopper conference quote: “It’s not really about asking for a raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will give you the right raise.” Oops. There’s a poor track record for men supporting women in tech- oftentimes by ‘speaking on their behalf’, or using the issue to support their personal brand instead of sincerely supporting it. Let’s not forget some scathing comments about Vivek Wadhwa, or, “Dadhwa,” who maintains that he has no intent to speak over women about their issues, and goes on to do literally that on an interview focused on this very topic!
Since the events above transpired, the air has been a bit more clear, and so the question is coming back. We’ve made very little progress in increasing the amount of diverse hiring the industry does. Imagine, however, if the male employees of [insert tech company here, which probably has a male-to-female employee ratio of 3-to-1 or higher] were interested in diversity, how much faster progress could be made? Sometimes, people aren’t even aware that these problems exist, or are even problems. Speaking about the problem raises awareness- and doing something- anything at all about the problem- raises awareness. Leah’s post on betanews of her personal experience is that even the smallest interaction can make folks think about the women in technology conversation. If there’s one thing we lost recently, it was the heavy attention that the conversation got. Vivek Wadhwa’s personal motivations and character aside, the man brought a huge amount of attention to the conversation. He has bowed out of the conversation, and refuses to return. It’s certainly hard to find anyone else with as large an audience and reputation as he has, but we’re slowly moving towards getting diverse hires who believe in the conversation.
It’s certainly a difficult topic to speak about. Should men be invited to enter the conversation? Clearly, the answer is hard to find. The track record of male allies has so far been disappointing, but there is still value to diverse voices in a conversation about diversity.
