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219 points thisisit | 20 comments | | HN request time: 0.341s | source | bottom
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lostmsu ◴[] No.16126641[source]
There's one important datapoint in this article: "The Bamboo Ceiling".

When the whole fuzz about gender discrimination started, Microsoft and Google published numbers, claiming women got the same pay at the same positions as men. Knowing there's discrimination from personal experience/feeling, I theorized, that women are discriminated in a different way: they don't receive promotions.

Under otherwise similar circumstances having children does not feel to be enough to explain why of 100 women hired in tech on professional roles less are promoted to higher positions, than of 100 men. That trend is (at least anecdotally for me) observable even before people become parents.

This "Bamboo Ceiling" shows the same effect for another potentially discriminated group of people.

replies(5): >>16126781 #>>16126794 #>>16127061 #>>16127979 #>>16138507 #
1. dominotw ◴[] No.16126781[source]
I have the opposite observation, women do tend to get promoted to managerial roles fairly quickly.
replies(1): >>16126838 #
2. toomuchtodo ◴[] No.16126838[source]
Good managers have empathy. Women are traditionally more empathetic.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19476221/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5110041/

replies(4): >>16126933 #>>16126945 #>>16126955 #>>16127181 #
3. tzahola ◴[] No.16126933[source]
H-hold on! Didn’t we agree that there’s no difference between the two genders’ inherent capabilities?

Stop rocking the boat, thank you!

4. pacala ◴[] No.16126945[source]
Consider treading more carefully. Your statement, with gender role reversed, caused people to get publicly fired as recent as 2017.
replies(3): >>16127057 #>>16127458 #>>16127907 #
5. ◴[] No.16126955[source]
6. toomuchtodo ◴[] No.16127057{3}[source]
I work at a traditional enterprise. My (non radical) opinions don’t get me fired (versus the greater tech community).

It’s amusing to see these comments fluctuate wrt karma so quickly for the simple thesis that women might have traits that allow them to be better managers. I even come with study citations!

My condolences to those of you who might work somewhere where your livelihood is threatened for freedom of thought. The job market is great right now FYI.

replies(2): >>16127354 #>>16127416 #
7. hnaccy ◴[] No.16127181[source]
Janet Damore?
8. ◴[] No.16127354{4}[source]
9. alexman ◴[] No.16127416{4}[source]
I don't get it: do comments get downvoted on HN whenever there's any mention of or opinion on difference between genders? Disagreement shouldn't lead to downvote.
replies(2): >>16127683 #>>16127922 #
10. Aloha ◴[] No.16127458{3}[source]
Perhaps the issue isn't the posters statement, but the prevailing wisdom that there are absolutely no difference between genders in practical functionality.

Differences should never lead to inequality - women are better at some things, conversely so are men, but you need to treat (and pay) people equally - and this next part is the most important part - you also need to ensure that you have positions for all kinds of people in your organization - and that culturally, you allow for diversity, and have an organization that allows people from diverse backgrounds an experiences thrive.

The latter part is a key flaw of geek culture (most often seen in engineering organizations) - we often fail at inclusivity, because we've spent our whole lives being left on the outside, so we develop a fundamental distrust of people unlike us (look at the interplay between sales and engineering in most old line companies), and have not learned the skills to create an inclusive environment.

Because of this we tend to create 'old boys clubs' that are full of people who are remarkably like us.

But, we can do better, and should - however shutting down the discussion is not how you solve these problems, it just makes them worse in the long term by creating a new culture even more intolerant of dissent.

11. ◴[] No.16127683{5}[source]
12. lurr ◴[] No.16127907{3}[source]
Yeah, amazing what can happen when you make an argument poorly and without thought to how your audience will react.

Oh but citations. Good for you, that's a good bit of research. Sure the facts seem cherry picked and don't necessarily support your conclusions. You also presented them in an entirely tone deaf manner, you seem to imply a number of negative things, you perpetuated stereotypes, and you didn't explore any possible alternative explanations, but you definitely cited some research papers. B+ for effort, F for execution.

F as in fired with cause.

replies(2): >>16128146 #>>16131292 #
13. lurr ◴[] No.16127922{5}[source]
> Disagreement shouldn't lead to downvote

Actually PG said the opposite. I used to have the comment saved, but lost it in a format.

Anyway, people also downvote because they are sick of talking about this.

replies(1): >>16130658 #
14. toomuchtodo ◴[] No.16128146{4}[source]
Yikes. I’d regret having to be corporate legal counsel having to defend firing “for cause” in these political correctness scenarios to a jury of 12.

More like go directly to S as in seven figure settlement package.

EDIT: Direct reference to Google's incident.

15. alexman ◴[] No.16130658{6}[source]
I'm surprised if PG did say that. If disagreement should lead to downvote, then unpopular opinions would not see the light of day.

Also, if one's sick of discussing a topic, s/he can simply don't read about or discuss it. Why prevent others from discussing it?

replies(1): >>16131314 #
16. dang ◴[] No.16131292{4}[source]
We've banned this account for repeatedly violating the site guidelines. Would you please not create accounts to do this with?
replies(1): >>16131404 #
17. dang ◴[] No.16131314{7}[source]
Things pg said about downvotes:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=392347

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=658691

It's how HN has always worked, and in my opinion needs to. A site that cares about discussion quality needs those white blood cells.

replies(1): >>16137127 #
18. lurr ◴[] No.16131404{5}[source]
I didn't. I created an account for discussion.
replies(1): >>16134609 #
19. dang ◴[] No.16134609{6}[source]
That's fine. But you need to use the site as intended. That means remaining scrupulously respectful of others, not using the site for flamewar or ideological battle, and the other things at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
20. alexman ◴[] No.16137127{8}[source]
Thanks for sharing the threads. I always think that downvoting is for discouraging bad arguments from DH0 to DH3 [1] (for discussion quality as you mentioned). Now I realize that even convincing arguments at DH6 can be downvoted as long as one disagrees with it.

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html