Reply to post: Re: This needs to stop

Re: This needs to stop

Your number 5 sums up your own standpoint nicely. You think that recognising the privileged position we white men have experienced for decades is itself bigotry.

OK. I'll put things in a different way. When I was in school. Girls did not do IT. They were encouraged to do home economics. And i'm only in my 30s. That same attitude prevailed until fairly recently in a LOT of schools. Hell, its still a view that prevails in a lot of schools, especially in the USA.

Your point 1 is you cherry picking a statistic. Overall, women still get paid less than men in all industries. That is just the reality of it. Saying "oh they get paid more in their 20s" doesn't make any difference to that fact.

Your points 2 and 3 are confusing what is, with what you perceive it to be. The vague arm waving at "active discrimination" isn't borne out in reality. Go and sit in a lecture theatre at the beginning of a computing degree in Sept/Oct - you'll find the rooms filled mostly with men. When I did it? There were around 300 of us in that theatre. I could count the number of women on one hand.

Your first point 4 is itself just nonsense as it is again ignoring the root cause of why there aren't women applying for roles in the industry. You are effectively saying there aren't women in IT because they aren't applying and leaving it at that. Just like the other commenters on this page who say "well, if they don't apply to run a session its their own fault" effectively. It is myopic and just you projecting your own fear of an actual level playing field.

Your second point 4 is factually and demonstrably false. Start at younger ages - girls were not encouraged to look at IT at all until the last few years. STEM has only been pushed more strongly with girls in the last 10 years or so.

And yes, the goalposts WILL need to keep moving, until the industry is representative of the demographics of the societies we live in. Without it, we end up with biased technology being produced as the people making it do not have the wide experience needed to cover everyone who may use it. Just look at facial recognition and how well that works for black people...