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not a single comment in here addressing two of the most important points brought up by the OP. the redditors managed to do it constructively. while gender and racial politics are clearly orthogonal to the concerns of the average HN poster, the tech we build is imbued with them and we are responsible for the issues produced by the lack of their consideration.

> There's not enough women in technology. What a fucked up industry. That needs to change. I've been trying to be more encouraging and helpful to the women engineers in our org, but I don't know what else to do.

> Same with black engineers. What the hell?

I'll start. I have experienced multiple occasions of men being derisive towards women in the workplace, and have been nowhere near forceful enough in shutting it down. I have offered support after the fact, but I need to become more confident at voicing my displeasure in the moment. This applies to all of my male co-workers, and I would bet nearly all of you as well.




If you care about this issue can you consider editing your first paragraph? It's likely to preemptively derail the discussion you're trying to get started.


edit made, I hope that is more palatable.


I don't think derisive attitudes in the workplace adequately explain it, because there are a lot fewer women in CS/engineering school too.


I certainly don't mean to imply that misogyny (which those kind of attitudes are a specific expression of) begins in the workplace. It's just where I currently am in life and where it has been most apparent to me in the past several years. I agree that it starts much earlier and there is significant work to be done at that level as well.


I'm not sure misogyny is the only possible explanation here, and I am almost certain it doesn't account for the entire gap.




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