The Culture Keeping Women Out of Tech Jobs

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-culture-keeping-women-out-of-tech-jobs/

by sheltgor • 12 years ago

6 4 12 years ago

oh_sigh• 12 years ago

Extremely weak article for 538.

It talks about how > 50% of bachelor degrees in STEM are earned by women(according to the NSF). Then it talks about how ~39% of STEM jobs are held by women(according to a different org with probably different standards - the ACS).

Why don't they care about the great injustice being perpetrated against men by women earning more than their fair share of degrees in a field? Why don't they account for the differences in bookkeeping between the NSF and the ACS?

Why doesn't it compare these numbers and the degree-to-work dropoff to other non-STEM fields?

Then it talks about "27 percent said they find their careers stalling due to workplace sexism". Why don't they talk about how that number relates to other fields? Or how it relates to mens numbers for the same question in the same field? Or the same question in different fields.

cheez• 12 years ago

This kind of comparison requires scientific rigor and unfortunately, may not result in the desired answer for a given viewpoint. It's much easier to go on incomplete numbers mixed with emotion. I don't blame the people advocating for more women: tech salaries are fairly high and it's better for them that they work in tech than something like garbage collection.

Software is an industry of truth. I have seen my share of deadweight (male only) and nothing kills a fledgling company faster. Hire competent people who you get along with. Fire people who don't produce. Don't hire someone just because of their gender. It's unfair to all and is actually sexist...

gizmo686• 12 years ago

538 branded itself on providing that level of rigor before getting the desired answers. This article feels really out of place for this particular source.

aResponder51• 12 years ago

My response lacks rigor, but, the linked studies may give some insight into your first point. As to the second, third, and fourth... really, as much as I'd like to say I'm all for supporting women, it's midnight and I have some stuff to do before bed tonight. You sound like you're interested in the topic though, maybe you have a few hours and are interested in furthering equality? (No snark, real analysis like what you're doing is hard to come by)

from the NSF study: Female CS grads in 2012: 8,730 Male CS grads in 2012: 39,230

from the ACS study: Women's respresentation ... remains significantly underrepresented in engineering and computer occupations ... which make up more than 80 percent of all STEM employment.

The Culture Keeping Women Out of Tech Jobs

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