It seems at the Techcrunch Geek n’ Rolla they’re talking about how to get more women into tech start-ups. One of the panellists has created a survey to take a look at the equalities (or otherwise) between women and men in tech.
With a question like this, what do you think the outcome of this survey will be?
I’d never actually heard of Silicon Stillettos before. It’s a social networking site for women in tech. Their tagline is: “It’s time to put your heels on!” I know, how about we have another site called “Developer Divas” or “Sexy SEOs”. I really don’t want to go into the argument again, but this is a great example of the faux-feminism that really gets my goat.
You can’t giggle over shoes and make-up one minute, then complain about the old boy’s club the next. It sort of undermines your credibility.
I’m sorry for bringing this up again Zoe, I was just disappointed with the survey and response
(http://siliconstilettos.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ladies-we-are-screwed)
“it’s all our OWN fault that there aren’t any more women in start-ups. If we were arrogant, lying bastards we’d have a chance to succeed, but we’d still have to compete with the old ‘boys network’. ”
I think the survey was far from an impartial view, with leading questions and answers, I don’t see how a different response could have been expected.
I don’t think this issue should be swept under the carpet, I think it needs to be discussed, the last time I brought it up on my blog some things were said to me in email and in person that were hurtful and unneeded.
This issue isn’t going to go away by not discussing it and sweeping it under the carpet, its just going to get worse with more separate groups starting and then over time there’s an us vs. them mentality.
Heya Dom,
I don’t mean that the issue has to be swept under the carpet, but I do think that the issue is more complex than “men are sexist and stop women going into tech”. I think there’s an aspect of women looking at the lack of other women in tech and pointing the finger at men rather than thinking “hey, maybe women just prefer other jobs” or whatever reason you like.
Everyone has a strong view on the subject – I’m a girl and hardly anyone’s agreed with me so far
I find it very interesting that some people equate equality with proportional representation. I wonder though if the issue is that there are a lot of men who would like more women in technology or if it is the sort of women who like to be visible that are disappointed that other women don’t think the same way they do, who are creating these initiatives.
I also wonder, assuming that women are genuinely under-represented in technology, what the benefit would be of encouraging other women to join in?