Tech bros’ attitude to female colleagues stuck in dark ages::Research sheds light on attitudes holding industry back

  • _number8_@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    40
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    8 months ago

    worst time of my life was when i was in computer science. i’m a guy but still - that hyper competitive shit is horrilbly toxic. letters on a computer don’t need to be boot camp toughen up bullshit.

    • pulaskiwasright@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      44
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Where was that? I found compsci to be an extremely supportive environment where almost everyone was trying to help each other.

      • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        28
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        Yea, I mostly remember trauma bonding with classmates at 3am working on a project due at 8am

      • Fal@yiffit.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        8 months ago

        Electrical engineering major here, and it was very much the same. Very helpful supportive

        • Apolinario Mabussy@lemmy.calvss.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          8 months ago

          Same here! Most people were very supportive and we commiserated a lot about our majors. And the same was the case for the entire engineering department.

          The only anecdote I know about which is similar to the hyper-competitiveness in the top comment is from a friend who was a CS major in a different university but with a heavy entrepreneurship/business slant.

      • finestnothing@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        There were a few hyper competitive people who were always trying to finish everything first to flex on everyone, they hated me because I finished projects earlier (I helped people that were having issues when I finished, they caught on and I got some snotty messages about being a try hard… I just had a lot of free time at work and the projects were easy to me). Along with a few of these in each class, I had some people that were just moochers that actually sucked and just copied other people and constantly did leetcode challenges or whatever, I ended up with 2 of them in my senior project and they did almost nothing even when asked.

        That said, a very very large amount of the people I met were awesome supportive people, both in my comp sci classes and upper div math classes for my minor. We were remote for all but 1 semester of my degree and I lived an hour away from the university so I didn’t end up making any lasting friends, but at least once a week I had study/help/hangout sessions with people I met in group projects, people they met, etc. A few people would show up to copy code and answers, but nearly everyone was great, and would pitch in to help others in the group if needed. There will always be snotty, lazy, and competitive people in every field, but they are (almost) always the extreme monority

    • vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Honestly, I fare even worse in blue collar type environments. YMMV depending on your upbringing and general tolerance, but a lot of the “playful banter” I witness is stuff that would have you expelled from student associations these days.

      That’s not an endorsement of tech bros btw. They are toxic. The fact that other people are toxic in a different way does not exonerate them.

      • 0x0@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        14
        ·
        8 months ago

        You’re only allowed to criticize the tech bros now, otherwise you’re deemed toxic too.

        • vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          You’re only allowed to criticize the tech bros now, otherwise you’re deemed toxic too.

          I sure as hell ain’t about to praise fucking tech bros.

          Maybe just quit your “Pc hAs gOnE tOoFaR” winging.

          • 0x0@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            8 months ago

            I sure as hell ain’t about to praise fucking tech bros.

            Never said you should.

    • reliv3@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      33
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      8 months ago

      On point. Everytime these kind of studies are posted, the bros always have some low key sexist comments which try to explain why the study is wrong… It happens a lot in the scientific community as well. Yet, all you need to do is speak to a few women in the field to understand just how hostile some of these Stem communities can be towards women.

  • Gigan@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    33
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    8 months ago

    “In the UK, they pay women 26 percent less than their male counterparts,”

    Wow, I’m surprised the UK doesn’t have laws preventing gender based pay discrimination.

    • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      39
      arrow-down
      30
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Most of these studies are nonsensical and don’t take into account things like whether the person works full or part time, or looks at average lifetime earnings. Both of which completely ignore that women very often either stop working or go part time when pregnant/raising children.

      Anybody who actually thinks that for the same job a woman’s wage is 26% less needs their head examined. It’s not true and only gets pushed in media because it riles both sides up and gets clicks/engagement.

      If governments actually wanted to do anything about the average lifetime earnings difference between men and women, they should make getting childcare cheaper, because it disproportionately affects women. But they don’t.

      As it stands, the UK has some of the most expensive childcare costs in the world, especially compared to average household income.

      E: apparently people don’t understand that single mothers are a thing, pregnancy is a thing, and mothers are far more likely to look after children and lower their working hours than fathers.

      • reliv3@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        11
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        I thought it takes a man and a woman to make a child. In addition, in many countries, both the man and woman can take leave when they have a child.

        These sorta points greatly weaken your argument. You using child care as an alternative explanation towards why woman may make less is likely a symptom of the bias women face in the job market.

        • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          11
          ·
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          I’m well aware of biology, thank you.

          It’s an undeniable fact that there are more single mothers who look after their children than single fathers. I’ll leave it to you to figure out why.

          Women working fewer hours in their working lives is by far and away the biggest reason for the gap between the total lifetime earnings of men and total lifetime earnings of women. The biggest reason women take fewer hours is because of pregnancy and childcare. That’s why I brought it up. I thought that was obvious, but apparently not.

          Prove to me that women earn less for doing the same work. Find me a job listing that advertises a lower wage for women. You won’t find one. Because that’s not the issue here.

          • 0x0@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            8 months ago

            Find me a job listing that advertises a lower wage for women. You won’t find one.

            That would be asking for trouble, duh.

            It’s illegal in my country to specify gender too, so all ads say “(m/f)”, do you really think there won’t be a hiring bias when hiring for a role where one gender is predominant?

        • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          Really? Not one? You walk into a McDonald’s, for example, and you think based on their gender they’re paid different?

          They should take the employer to court in that case. They will win their case. Easily.

    • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      arrow-down
      23
      ·
      8 months ago

      It boils down to choice of career, work/life balance, experience level, and assertiveness.

    • WhyDoesntThisThingWork@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      10
      ·
      8 months ago

      I’m sure they do and it’s misleading stat. These studies always find a way to get the result they want instead of the one that’s honest.

  • onlinepersona@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    Tech bros’ attitude to female colleagues stuck in dark ages

    Almost one in five […]

    Imagine if the article started with

    Feminists attitude to men stuck in the dark ages

    Almost one in five

    Would you take it seriously?

    20% is not good, but that title makes it seem like it’s 80%.

    The female IT colleagues I’ve had have been just like med: OK to stellar. The only absolute IT knobhead I’ve had the displeasure of dealing with was a dude, and the only non-IT dickhead colleague was a woman.


    For the study, follow https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/system-update-addressing-the-gender-gap-in-tech-report and scroll to the bottom.

    They interviewed 21 women and had an online survey with

    555 women and 523 men who currently or have recently left a tech role (less than 4 years ago), 360 women who have not worked in tech, but hold a qualification in a STEM subject at Level 3 or above

    and these people were 90% from England. There were 1.7 million people in tech in the UK in July 2023. The US has 9.7M and I have no idea how many the EU has (too lazy to search). But to generalize the findings of a single country globally…

    What a bad article.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    It is still 2023, yet anyone familiar with the industry over the last 30 years may feel a sense of déjà vu when reading the findings of a report by The Fawcett Society charity and telecoms biz Virgin Media O2.

    It claimed: “By seeing more female role models in tech, young girls will start to see IT as a realistic and attractive career option.”

    Those daring enough to delve deeper into history will find that far from women being “naturally less well suited” to the industry, they actually helped found it and provided the backbone of its early workforce.

    Historian Mar Hicks, associate professor at Illinois Institute of Technology, has plotted how women staffed early IT departments during the 1950s because the work was seen as uninspiring and lacking in career cachet.

    Among her employees was Ann Moffatt, who coded the black box recorder for the Anglo-French supersonic passenger jet Concorde.

    The “move fast and break things” culture embodying post-millennium tech claims to be the great disruptor in everything – except the numbing predictability of sexism.


    The original article contains 713 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • kleenbhole@lemy.lol
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    8 months ago

    Female dominated cultural spaces are intolerable to me. Male dominated cultural spaces are intolerable to them.

    It’s almost like there’s a difference in genders and maybe you should let men and women self segregate along lines of interest.

  • WhyDoesntThisThingWork@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    14
    ·
    8 months ago

    This article and study seems pretty toxic to me. Acting and talking like these human beings are lab rats in order to push an agenda. Seems incredibly sexist in my eyes.

  • 0x0@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    36
    ·
    8 months ago

    Back in college most of the few women in my course got their grades using their breasts. Fact.

    The few women i’ve worked with professionally have been good professionals, some of the best even.

    Studies say™ is pretty damn irrelevant these days. If that inequality is true, governments should act. Most have legislation against this kind of legislation, but that’s it, paper. There are very few government officials actually controlling these issues proactively, if any at all. Plus few companies make salaries public and it’s not common to discuss paycheck.

    Ensuring neither the company nor the worker gets penalized for pregnancy/newborn care would probably help a lot.

    No, i’m not denying there’s a bias, there most likely is, especially in IT. But in paychecks, for that reason alone, not so much… for sure there are lots of people in the same company in the same role with the same skillset and generally about equal in all the job requirements who do have differences in their salaries, but i’d wager that’s more related to how well they negotiated during the hiring process.

    • Tattorack@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      When someone says “fact” I expect to see a fact. As in, evidence that makes something stated as a fact an actual fact. Otherwise it’s just an anecdote, and no better than the anecdotes in the article linked above.

      • 0x0@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        An anecdote it is, then. I wonder if all the downvoters read past the first sentence.

        • Black616Angel@feddit.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          8 months ago

          Did you read past the first two words of the headline?

          It says “attitude towards female colleagues” not “pay for female employees”. And the article reflects that, your comment not that much…