Sexism in technical literature

[Simon]

About CEOs, the boss of the boss of the boss of my boss is a she, and she does an awesome job and handles a vast chunk of a multi billion dollar company. Well not too vast, just about a couple of billion that she is responsible for.

And yeah, she makes the big bucks!

And has anyone said anything to suggest that this could or should not be ?

[Simon]

I have every interest in children being brought up properly because children are the future but you again put words in my mouth, if anything my opinion that women should be taken the required time to have children and not have a full blown career at the same time is because of that.

Well these days it is pretty hard for a single income family to buy a house or even rent a reasonable one. The average wage is about £24k, and you need a £50k joint income to really get anywhere. Of course it is much worse in London. So it isn't really a choice most families can make; both parents have to work. I too think it would be wonderful if all children could have one full time parent, but it just isn't possible.

So what you are saying is that women should choose between having a career and a home with a reasonable standard of living, and children but having to live with housing benefits in shitty rented accommodation because their husband's wage isn't enough on its own. If the husband loses his job then they are really screwed.

Besides which, why shouldn't someone be able to choose to have a career and children? Not just a women, a man could decide to always leave work at 5 to pick the kids up, and to take maximum paternity leave etc. If you really think bringing up children well is important then why penalize people for doing it? Why discourage them by saying it should harm their careers? Isn't bringing up children a noble and worthwhile thing in itself, which society should recognize? The alternative is either poor parenting or the government forking out for high quality childcare, and either way you will end up paying for it.

Ah, why have we got low wages ? how did we manage years ago when there was one earner only ? what would happen if 25% of the workforce became unavailable ? don't we have more worker supply than worker demand (forget what the government tell you) oh let me guess wages would go up but the individual wants to look after him or herself. Making progress in your career means spending time at work, I'm not talking about overtime or long hours but actually being there, I am progressing by working normal hours or less but I work hard. If a man wants to take time out to look after his kids he can't expect to be gaining experience at work and building his career without being at work. I'm not particularly career orientated, but aim to make the most of my work and progress accordingly.

[miguelvp]

That's the reason when I was looking for a job last (2009) I didn't even think in going to work in Ireland or Europe for that matter, the pay was really low, cost of living and taxes higher. I rather work in the States and go visit on vacation

[zapta]

So what you are saying is that women should choose between having a career and a home with a reasonable standard of living, and children but having to live with housing benefits in shitty rented accommodation because their husband's wage isn't enough on its own. If the husband loses his job then they are really screwed.

Yes, women should make decisions about their life choices and so are man and everybody else. That's called being a free adult.  Nobody owes us a thing, unless if you are trying to create a communist utopia but we know how it ends.

[vk6zgo]

To get us back on topic: http://hackaday.com/2014/05/16/augmented-reality-with-an-fpga/#comment-1470201

Skeptical explains the problem well.

By this logic this woman that said that Dave is "so cute" is a sexist person and he has the right to be offended.

http://sarahs-muse.livejournal.com/1250167.html

No,I think it indicates that "She should have gone to Specsavers"!

[Simon]

Ah, why have we got low wages ? how did we manage years ago when there was one earner only ? what would happen if 25% of the workforce became unavailable ? don't we have more worker supply than worker demand (forget what the government tell you) oh let me guess wages would go up but the individual wants to look after him or herself.

Are you seriously blaming women for low wages?

Making progress in your career means spending time at work, I'm not talking about overtime or long hours but actually being there, I am progressing by working normal hours or less but I work hard. If a man wants to take time out to look after his kids he can't expect to be gaining experience at work and building his career without being at work. I'm not particularly career orientated, but aim to make the most of my work and progress accordingly.

No one is saying it won't have any effect, but taking say a year out and then having some allowance or understanding to look after your kids shouldn't have a huge effect on your career. Delay it by a year at the most perhaps. It certainly shouldn't be a choice between career and kids.

To give you a concrete example there was a women on the radio a few years back who was a salesperson. She sold photocopiers to business clients, high salary, commission etc. She took maternity leave and when she came back all her clients had been given to other people and she basically ended up with a massive demotion. The courts ruled in her favour because maternity leave is viewed in the same way as statutory holiday or sick leave. You don't expect to come back and find your career ruined. Another women on the same programme was sacked about 30 minutes after getting an email from a friend congratulating her on her pregnancy. Turns our her boss was reading her email and made up some lame excuse to get rid of her, rather than allow her to take maternity leave.

As always you have put words in my mouth again. I will discuss this not further with you because it is pointless if you just make accusations based on things I did not say

[Köcki]

i don´t get the point of this gender formulations. i am no sexist, but for me all these new forms sounds awful and are not easy for a reading-flow

[ConKbot]

It's called a compliment.

And if you're trying to present useful technical information, and a majority of the comments you receive are compliments of your physical appearance it can get old really fast.  Not that people stop at compliments :-(

Try to find a Jerri Ellsworth or Lady Ada video on youtube where the comments don't include "propositions" of various sorts.  It's embarrassing...

Wow, Limor looks really pretty in this video It's something about attractive geeks that gets me going.

love the shows. Have a huge crush on ladyada. cant wait for your new shop. keep up the good work.

Lets get married Jeri - because I fell in love. LOL . Thee MOST interesting woman on earth.

I love you

Same for Fran Blanche videos too. Video about original piece of Apollo guidance hardware(so awesome!) ... and people have other things to comment on. 

Though thats a bigger ball of wax then some people realize.

[zapta]

Same for Fran Blanche videos too. Video about original piece of Apollo guidance hardware(so awesome!) .

Could not watch it for more than a few minutes. She talks slow, pauses between sentences and makes faces. Very bad delivery.

[dannyf]

It's embarrassing...

That's highly subjective.

If someone said that to me, I would be proud - that they like my work. Nothing wrong with people loving me - the more the merrier.

I would hate to live in a world where people hesitant to express themselves.

[8086]

Could not watch it for more than a few minutes. She talks slow, pauses between sentences and makes faces. Very bad delivery.

I assume you have done better, right? Or were you just being your usual nice guy self?

Fallacy alert. One does not need to have outdone someone personally in order to have a valid criticism of that person.

[Dinsdale]

The serial killer in "Silence of the Lambs" had it figured out:
   "IT puts the lotion on ITs skin."

[zapta]

I assume you have done better, right? Or were you just being your usual nice guy self?

Fallacy alert. One does not need to have outdone someone personally in order to have a valid criticism of that person.

Fallacy identified and neutralized!   Great job 8086 ;-)

[Simon]

and in the mean time you've been going around putting words in peoples mouths so you can run this argument your way......

[zapta]

Anyway, his comment was an obvious troll.

Actually it was not. I appreciate EE related blogs and also happy to find new ones (iantube, mjlorton, amp hour, Iain Portalupi (great humor), and more). Somebody mentioned that Fran's Apollo video was great and I offered an alternative opinion.  Women are also human and not everything they do is great (and pretending otherwise is pure sexism).

BTW, my favorite wife is a woman.

[EEVblog]

Try to find a Jerri Ellsworth or Lady Ada video on youtube where the comments don't include "propositions" of various sorts.  It's embarrassing...

Wow, Limor looks really pretty in this video It's something about attractive geeks that gets me going.

love the shows. Have a huge crush on ladyada. cant wait for your new shop. keep up the good work.

Lets get married Jeri - because I fell in love. LOL . Thee MOST interesting woman on earth.

I love you

I've had all 4 of those almost exact same example comments 

[Simon]

I should take up video blogging

[VK3DRB]

Anyway, his comment was an obvious troll.

BTW, my favorite wife is a woman.

What about your other wives?

[SeanB]

Simon, I Love you.... 






In a strictly platonic sense.

[Simon]

In a strictly platonic sense.

I should bloody well hope so as in any other way you not quite my type

[SeanB]

ROFL......

[GK]

When I did my MR truck license we pulled up on a hill overlooking the ocean. I simply commented that it was a beautiful day, in thoroughly manly way, and the instructor replied, in a rather unmanly way, "yes it is, just like you". I am not joking. 

[nitro2k01]

GK: I'm guessing that's not a photo of yourself in the avatar...?

[Rigby]

If there weren't a problem with how people acted there wouldn't be a problem with how they spoke. 

"He" would be a gender neutral word if people didn't feel an inherently positive or negative connotation from it.  Personal experience colors everything.

[dannyf]

"He" would be a gender neutral word

"He" had been a gender neutral word until recently.

Personal experience colors everything.

Absolutely true.