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I've never worked in a field where I could compete for a job with a woman, they'd always get first dibs. It is pretty unfair.

However a distinction must be made between the formal systems (extremely sexist favouring women), informal systems (potentially extremely sexist favouring men) and workplace environment (women are continuously sexually propositioned; pretty overwhelming evidence for that IMO).

Making the formal systems sexist is a stupid response to the informal systems being sexist. I wish that people would stop advocating that and instead work on the informal issue - if it isn't due to innate ability (a safe bet) then there must be something that can be done. The propositioning thing is a bit of a poser though, it is so pervasive that I suspect it points to deeper issues.

Also the anecdotal evidence is that if propositioning was successfully stamped out that would do crazy things to the fabric of how relationships get established. Might be a net good or bad.




It is really tough to measure performance in 'creative' fields. I've never ever seen anyone do it correctly (and would love to hear counter examples!); I've not even got a good place to start that wouldn't lead to some things being gamed, or end up being a popularity contest (like the informal systems).

As far as trying to address the... over-solicitation issue, I am trying to be constructive with this set of suggestions.

  * Diversify corporate offices to promote mixing in to cities rather than within the company.
  * Have strong work life balance allowing external socialization.
  * Apply political and economic pressure on civic infrastructure to promote:
  * * mass transit (more, better, cleaner, safer)
  * * quantity and quality of housing (lower prices for all)
  * * "livable" cities in general
Most of these solutions would also, over the 10-20+ year term, lead to more //opportunity// for all, and would also in the short term improve corporate culture and worker relations to make entering the field more appealing to a wider range of audiences.

Specific incentives for FAMILIES (not just women) could include additional career help and planning:

  * Part time work, fully async, from 'home' (or a more local office sometimes) for moms/dads.
  * Remote 'first' (only?) participation; meetings online, rather than by the water-cooler.
  * Have a presence in a given region that is stable
  * * with actual career paths in the area, allowing home-buying (rather than renting)


> I've never worked in a field where I could compete for a job with a woman, they'd always get first dibs. It is pretty unfair.

(As a white, straight male,) I have absolutely no issue with a woman being offered a role over me as a tie-breaker or an epsilon-advantage. A company who would go significantly farther than that is one that I don’t want to work for anyway as they’re not interested in being competitive.


That's a very interesting take. I know as a man, I'd rather work in a place where anyone propositioning someone else would be fired (man or woman) than a place where I may not even get the job because I'm male.


Romances between colleagues is a fairly common and natural thing. It seems quite excessive for all propositions to result in termination.


There is a difference between building an acquaintance, then friendship, and asking them out, and between offering explicit sexual acts right after/instead hello.




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