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Men of DesignerNews(menofdesignernews.tumblr.com)

over 7 years ago from Ian Williams, ✍ ◐ < ◑ ☞

  • Zsolt Kacso, over 7 years ago

    While I do think we need to talk about the percentage of women in tech, I don't see how these comments are the problem.

    The narrative should be "let's look at why women are not going into tech? is it because their discriminated against?" instead of "the problem is MEN". The latter will make most men switch into defensive mode, because most men have nothing against women.

    So, can someone explain what I'm missing?

    2 points
    • Ethan BondEthan Bond, over 7 years ago (edited over 7 years ago )

      Sure. The problem isn't men. There is not a single woman who considered a career in tech and decided against it because "men." There are probably a lot of women who approached careers in tech and were dissuaded by these types of statements, most of which are made by men. No one worth listening to has ever said "the problem is men."

      I go to a very male (70%+) engineering school in a rather progressive part of the country. Women are dismissed non-stop here. By students, by professors, by administrators. Our school president is a woman (of color), one of the most prolific physicists alive, and even she isn't immune to this type of "women aren't good enough to be in STEM" sentiment. This is, mind you, from a bunch of 20 year old upper middle class white males who are actually totally ignorant of the opportunities they've been afforded. This attitude is fostered throughout a student's most formative years – the years he merges his personal, social, and professional identities. You think that when he graduates he's suddenly woken up from the echo chamber he just spent four years within? He goes to tech companies which disproportionately hire people just like him, from schools just like his.

      The problem is not men. That's why, as a man, I don't feel targeted by this. The problem is sexism. That's why, as a feminist, I don't feel targeted by this. More broadly, the problem is this gigantic echo chamber that men in tech spend at least four years within before they even get a job. Right now you're catching a glimpse of what happens when the echo is interrupted and the vacuum is broken. There are a whole lot of hurt egos and inflicted insecurities surfacing in this thread – a small taste of the hurt ego and inflicted insecurity that a lot of woman in tech have faced for years, at every level of their educational and professional development.

      This thread is about men being upset about being the butt of "a joke." The joke is their own habit of making women the butt "of jokes." If men are upset by this, then it only legitimizes women's complaints.

      No one said "all men of DN." No one even said "most men of DN." This is obvious to anyone with basic reading comprehension.

      11 points