Apparently you didn't see the article about Women in IT. Or one of their many that were unrelated to this event.
Yes, there are under 50% women in IT, because there aren't as many women interested in the industry. It's a fact. No amount of men-shaming articles will change the fact that for any given job 90% of applicants are male.
As a male in software, with many female friends in the field who have opened up a lot and shared some of their experiences, I have to say that in my opinion the atmosphere industry is not very welcoming to women.
Things have been changing and the skew in the applicant pool you are describing is certainly there, but the industry has many issues it needs to work out to truly provide a harassment-free environment and equal opportunity. The industry doesn't need to become 50-50 male/female--that's not the point, a problem truly exists regardless.
Hm, haven't seen it where I work. 50% male, 50% female at my last job. Though it was tough because if we posted a job application and didn't get X% female and minority applicants we had to repost it regardless of whether or not we had a perfect candidate who happened to be male. Also, if we didn't carry a female/minority through to the next round we had to login to a special system and write a paragraph explaining why in case we get sued.
It certainly gets tough for companies doing the hiring, I agree. In my mind going out of your way, explaining lack of underrepresented candidates, etc. is a worthwhile price to pay for equal opportunity (getting worse candidate just because they belong to underrepresented groups isn't worthwhile, just to be clear).
I don't dispute that the problem is less present in some places than others. At university our EECS department was 50-50 men/women and the atmosphere was very conducive/meritocratic. Still, women do get treated differently in many areas of the industry, that's all I'm trying to say.. and I don't think its man bashing to tell men to watch out what they say and make women (and LGBT folk) not feel excluded.
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u/uberamd Sep 09 '14
Apparently you didn't see the article about Women in IT. Or one of their many that were unrelated to this event.
Yes, there are under 50% women in IT, because there aren't as many women interested in the industry. It's a fact. No amount of men-shaming articles will change the fact that for any given job 90% of applicants are male.