Sumant Manne
Aug 9, 2017 · 3 min read

Are you really going to make this claim, Emma, that women are such fragile employees that even discussing a stereotype would destroy their performance? Since you don’t even consider stereotype threats that may affect men, you imply only the stereotype threats that affect women are important and thus women are mentally fragile compared to men.

I actually had a coworker say a similar thing to me at my first job, he sent me all these articles on how women were worse at math and science than men, and it really freaked me out. Now, I understand that men who do this are usually threatened by my performance, attracted to me, or both.

So men who disagree with you are automatically threatened or attracted to you. Should we all also applaud how brave and stunning you are?

Men can’t be lenient on this issue because they don’t actually understand the problem.

I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware you were actually a man that understood men’s experiences.

When I’m given power over people in companies (say, by being team lead) sometimes I get disrespectful underlings. However, when I ran my own consultancy and was directly in charge of the hiring and firing, no one *ever* treated me with disrespect, not even the outside contractors.

If you think respect out of fear is in any way equivalent to respect out of admiration then you really don’t understand men.

Cuz, there is a little bit of a type of men who tend to do this. They tend to be young, they tend to be insecure about their own technical performance, and they tend to not be getting laid. Men who *almost never* do this are senior engineers with wives, and especially ones with daughters. When you start to notice these types of trends, you realize these kinds of statements say more about the men who utter them than the women who hear them, and then they lose their power.

Men who say things you disagree with are young, inexperienced, can’t get laid, and can be dismissed since they lack real power. Does the stereotype only affect women because they’re so mentally fragile, or does it affect men but it’s irrelevant because they’re only men?

Because, I have wondered it. I mean, it’s a pretty obvious question given the gender disparity — are women just worse at math and science than men? Ultimately, the conclusion I came to is, even if women are worse on average, this doesn’t dictate any individual’s performance, and you should judge everyone on an individual basis.

You obviously didn’t read the memo since that was directly addressed.

However, there are also many, many cultural factors impeding female progress in tech. Did I mention I was sexually assaulted by an ex-coworker once at a networking event? Bet that doesn’t happen to male engineers too often, and let me tell you, a sexual assault will really fucks up your morale.

This memo was about women, not Emma Lindsay.

Anyway, if after addressing all the cultural shit, the numbers end up being like, 60/40 male/female, I’d buy ok, maybe women are a little worse at tech on average.

👋

The 95/5 ratio that is more representative of my career, however, is clearly way too skewed.

Why? The memo has many citations while you have nothing outside claims of vague biases and your personal experiences.

I like you, Emma Lindsay, but I also see why you’re single. Birds of a feather flock together.

Sumant Manne

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I need to pay for my chocoholic habit.

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