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)
women are a minority in FLOSS/CS/ technology Men & women choose different careers and hobbies “Nurture” experiences, societal norms, culture (sexism) “Nature” “innate” differences ? ?
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!
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"
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”
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?
Different brains? ● angles in faces ● cephalic index (ratio of skull length to skull breadth) ● brain size ● brain weight ● neuroimaging to the rescue!
"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
“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”
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”?
'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
"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
"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)
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