If we keep telling women that they need a "women's hack day", a such and such women's event, etc, all we are doing is creating a bigger gender disparity.
I start to think of these events as pure PR stunts, rather than Linkedin et al. tackling any underlying gender issues.
I totally get what you're saying, and of course companies do things for PR, but typically events like these are not only about the competition, but also about raising awareness, showing women in male dominated areas "hey look, women do this too. It's perfectly acceptable to be interested in it!"
Now, if that's the message that's taken from this? That's open to discussion. And a discussion I'm not much of a part of, being a guy.
I think you need to back up your reasoning for how this creates a bigger gender gap. The aim of this event is not to create cliques of female programmers who only work at 100% female companies and only attend womens' events, which would do as you say, but to try and encourage more females to enter/stay in the industry, which would reduce gender disparity by moving the proportion of male to female members towards 0.5.
I would hope the readership around here could elevate the discussion beyond trite little quips such as this. Again I come away disappointed.
For future reference: these "reverse the roles" arguments are about as shallow and ignorant as one can get. The context is completely different for the "reversed" roles, rendering the comparison not even meaningless, but downright hostile.
Probably. Because men make up the majority of the software industry, it would be a little pointless to have a Men's hackerday, and so would be seen as excluding women for the sake of excluding women. This hacker day on the other hand targets women, who are a minority, and thus has a purpose for excluding men other than misandry.
I believe this is the first of its kind. Both women-centric and international. Props to the Slideshare team for coming up with the idea and putting it together!
[+] [-] antr|13 years ago|reply
I start to think of these events as pure PR stunts, rather than Linkedin et al. tackling any underlying gender issues.
[+] [-] jeffool|13 years ago|reply
Now, if that's the message that's taken from this? That's open to discussion. And a discussion I'm not much of a part of, being a guy.
[+] [-] lclarkmichalek|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joering2|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sidcool1234|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hackinthebochs|13 years ago|reply
For future reference: these "reverse the roles" arguments are about as shallow and ignorant as one can get. The context is completely different for the "reversed" roles, rendering the comparison not even meaningless, but downright hostile.
[+] [-] lclarkmichalek|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sudeepy|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iag|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] d_j|13 years ago|reply