$30 off During Our Annual Pro Sale. View Details »

Neurosexism

 Neurosexism

Presented at Haecksen miniconf, Linux.conf.au 2011.

Brianna Laugher

January 17, 2011
Tweet

More Decks by Brianna Laugher

Other Decks in Technology

Transcript

  1. neuro sexism
    Brianna Laugher | Haecksen miniconf | LCA2011

    View Slide

  2. “Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society,
    and Neurosexism Create Difference” by Cordelia
    Fine, 2010

    View Slide

  3. View Slide

  4. yeah, but why are there so few
    women in open source??

    View Slide

  5. women are a
    minority in
    FLOSS/CS/
    technology
    ???

    View Slide

  6. Slashdot 2006
    on a story about the founding of
    Fedora Women

    View Slide

  7. Women tend toward more social careers.
    Of course there are exceptions and there
    are women who choose fields which are
    more male-oriented by their nature
    (construction, military service) just as there
    are men who choose jobs traditionally held
    by women.
    Unlike some other fields, women aren't
    being kept out of programming through
    any sort of imposed discrimination. [...]
    Yes, they're a minority, but only out of
    choice. No one is telling women not to
    code.
    http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=192551&cid=15806271 (2006)

    View Slide

  8. women are a
    minority in
    FLOSS/CS/
    technology
    Men &
    women
    choose
    different
    careers
    and
    hobbies

    View Slide

  9. women are a
    minority in
    FLOSS/CS/
    technology
    Men &
    women
    choose
    different
    careers
    and
    hobbies
    ???

    View Slide

  10. women are a
    minority in
    FLOSS/CS/
    technology
    Men &
    women
    choose
    different
    careers
    and
    hobbies
    “Nurture”
    experiences,
    societal norms,
    culture
    (sexism)
    “Nature”
    “innate”
    differences
    ?
    ?

    View Slide

  11. women are a
    minority in
    FLOSS/CS/
    technology
    Men &
    women
    choose
    different
    careers
    and
    hobbies
    “Nurture”
    experiences,
    societal norms,
    culture
    (sexism)
    “Nature”
    “innate”
    differences
    ?
    ?
    XFeminism has succeeded!
    No overt discrimination!

    View Slide

  12. Well, actually...

    Still overt discrimination

    Sexual harassment – hostile workplace

    Unconscious bias in hiring, esp. against mothers

    The “second shift”

    “We like what (we think) we are good at”

    Numerical minority, lack of role models

    Stereotype threat

    Leadership – "competent but cold" vs "nice but
    incompetent"

    View Slide

  13. Also...
    Hard to keep female and work identities
    compatible in male-dominated domains -
    “The easiest solution to the
    problem of being female in a
    setting in which women are made
    to feel that they are inferior and
    do not belong is to become as
    unfeminine as possible.” p52
    Can encourage “antifemale attitudes”

    View Slide

  14. women are a
    minority in
    FLOSS/CS/
    technology
    Men &
    women
    choose
    different
    careers
    and
    hobbies
    “Nature”
    “innate”
    differences
    – different
    brains
    different minds
    – cognitive
    abilities,
    personalities
    Different how?

    View Slide

  15. Different brains?

    angles in faces

    cephalic index (ratio of skull length to skull
    breadth)

    brain size

    brain weight

    neuroimaging to the rescue!

    View Slide

  16. "The female brain is
    predominantly hard-wired for
    empathy. The male brain is
    predominantly hard-wired for
    understanding and building
    systems."
    -- p1, "The Essential Difference" by Simon Baron-Cohen, 2003

    View Slide

  17. View Slide

  18. “Blobology”

    Measures proxies for brain activity, not brain
    activity directly

    Not clear what activity implies re involvement

    Brain structure => psychological function is
    obscure – making reverse inferences is fraught

    "Some neural differences are inconsequential,
    because they are offset by other compensatory
    differences. Other neural differences are
    alternative pathways to the same behavorial end."
    – Celia Moore, quoted p 143

    “file drawer phenomenon”

    View Slide

  19. Brain responses != “hard-wired” – brain
    differences are not specially pointed towards
    "nature", but also effects of socialisation and
    experience
    The brain is malleable!
    “Hard-wired”?

    View Slide

  20. 'Greater Male Variability' hypothesis
    The idea that there is greater spread in male
    populations (more idiots, more geniuses)
    Even if it is so now... it is not inevitable or
    immutable. e.g. not seen in all countries.
    intellectual ability as a fixed gift vs earned quality
    that can be developed p 184

    View Slide

  21. “Equal but different”
    What's wrong with that?

    View Slide

  22. "Gender Equality 2.0 justifies a
    status quo in which politics,
    wealth, science, technology, and
    artistic achievement continue to
    lie primarily in the hands of
    (white) men." p 91

    View Slide

  23. "It is not an accident that there is
    no Nobel Prize for making people
    feel included."
    – Neil Levy, quoted p 91
    (from Hochschild "The Second Shift" 1990)

    View Slide

  24. This work is © Brianna Laugher and licensed under the Creative Commons
    Attribution ShareAlike license, except where otherwise noted:

    Book covers and logos © their respective owners

    "Abolish gender” graffiti: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristofher/4198179990/
    CC-BY By Kristofher Muñoz

    pink and blue cupcakes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartwebster/4775041577/
    CC-BY by Stuart Webster

    "gender machine works": http://www.flickr.com/photos/trevorblake/3147797753/
    CC-BY-SA By Trevor Blake

    FMRI image (right): http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FMRI.jpg
    released into the public domain.

    PET image (left): http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PET_Normal_brain.jpg
    Public domain, US government work.

    Bell curve: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ci_generos.png
    CC-BY By User:Xjmos

    Quote person: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quoting.gif
    released into the public domain.

    View Slide

  25. thanks!
    [email protected]
    identi.ca/pfctdayelise
    brianna.laugher.id.au

    View Slide