Lynne Batik
Aug 8, 2017 · 4 min read

I am disappointed but unsurprised by the number of white males who show up in the comments immediately accusing the woman who wrote this of being (a) emotional, and (b) a leftist fascist trying to suppress free expression of opinion.

To adapt a comment I left elsewhere:

Apparently these commenters think that women getting angry at being told that those talented at coding, maths, technology and science are “aberrations” and that in general time should not be “wasted” on opening paths for women into tech, means that the argument against women has merit.

By that chain of logic: men apparently get very angry at being told that because they have not lived the experience of discrimination in these fields based on gender, and are happily unaware of what it looks like because they are accepted into those fields by default, they are not in a position to tell women it’s imaginary and/or deserved. And because they get angry at being told this, obviously the argument has merit.

Think on that, guys. If you class that as a fallacy, try to follow the chain of thought which tells you that it works both ways.

Now, as for the case at Google itself…

Too many men insist that this is just about women’s feelings getting hurt, and if their feelings are getting hurt that is clearly a sign of weakness anyway.

Google, note, has a strong culture of peer-review.

What do you think that women would expect out of that, if they are faced with the fact that evidently at least a few of their peers think they are less capable simply because they are women, and not based on the quality of their work?

https://peerj.com/articles/cs-111/

This is not about our widdle feewings being hurt. This is about the fact that other people’s held stereotypes affect opportunity, as well as providing the classic “chilly environment” of work. Yes, beliefs that are held about women affect performance feedback — and pay, and job opportunities.

http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-24669-002

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3057475/

and

I am disappointed, but unsurprised, at the number of men who believe that women are just “naturally” uninterested in tech, because women do tend to be “uninterested” in working in environments which are systematically hostile. As a mental exercise, gentlemen:

Imagine (this is hypothetical, but seriously, try to imagine) that you really enjoy teaching little kids, because you like the enthusiasm with which little kids approach the world and you’re confident that you’re a good teacher and can nurture that enthusiasm. Imagine that you get a teaching degree for primary-level classes, and childcare certifications, even though you’re possibly the only man in a class of thirty or so and everyone wants to know why you’re doing this. Then imagine you start your working career, and you have a suspicion that you are being offered a substantially lower salary than your female peers, because nobody thinks you’ll stick with it, and because some people assume that it’s actually kind of suspicious that you, a man, want to work with small children. I mean, why would a guy want to do that? It’s not “natural.”

Now imagine that at every turn, and at every job, you are looked at with suspicion for wanting to work with small children. And you have some people openly questioning if you’re there because you’re secretly into pedophilia and have an “interest” in kids that you shouldn’t. And you realise you are under far greater scrutiny from management, and not allowed to do certain field trips that you wanted to do with the kids you work with, even though your female peers can do largely what they please.

After years of suspicion and discrimination, do you think you might just get fed up, lose your enthusiasm, and look for a different type of job?

If you are capable of stretching your understanding and empathy to the hypothetical man in this situation, then maybe you could try stretching it a little more to the very real women in somewhat similar situations in tech. And women do seem to be surrounded by men who insist that the presence of women in tech fields is just not “natural.”

…Or, of course, maybe you could just dismiss the lived experience of hundreds if not thousands of women, because you don’t respect women enough to believe we might be telling you the truth and identifying a real problem which you just don’t want to believe. Call me cynical, but it’s not like we don’t see that an awful lot.

Lynne Batik

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An autonomous locus of free will.

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