Women in IT don't need special treatment
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 28th May 2012 19:25 UTC
In the News This topic comes up quite a lot on technology websites, but I generally try to steer clear from it as much as possible, since I'm not the one to talk about it (you know, with me being a man and all that), however, I feel it might be a good idea to just get my opinion out there and be done with it. The topic of women in IT is a hot-button issue, so let me just go out guns blazing: assuming women need special treatment, help, protection, and affirmative action is just as insulting and degrading as outright claiming women have no place in IT - maybe even more so.
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rr7.num7
Member since:
2010-04-30

That was kind of my point. Just because some women do get hired unfairly is no reason to then go and dismantle the policy of affirmative action. Two wrongs don't make a right.


Oh, but affirmative action is the second wrong.

Reply Parent Score: 3

kwan_e Member since:
2007-02-18

"That was kind of my point. Just because some women do get hired unfairly is no reason to then go and dismantle the policy of affirmative action. Two wrongs don't make a right.


Oh, but affirmative action is the second wrong. "

Do we REALLY want to calculate to the nth degree who was in the wrong? Because affirmative action is just one in a long list of attempts at corrective action, which is what I think we really want in the end. Two wrongs don't make a right, but affirmative action is like the billionth and something wrong.

To say that affirmative action is the second wrong looks to be picking a point in random conveniently at the point of one's own concerns rather than what's important for society as a whole...

Reply Parent Score: 2

rr7.num7 Member since:
2010-04-30

Do we REALLY want to calculate to the nth degree who was in the wrong? Because affirmative action is just one in a long list of attempts at corrective action, which is what I think we really want in the end. Two wrongs don't make a right, but affirmative action is like the billionth and something wrong.

To say that affirmative action is the second wrong looks to be picking a point in random conveniently at the point of one's own concerns rather than what's important for society as a whole...


Ok, let me rephrase it then. Affirmative action is just another wrong in a long list of wrongs. And two (or three, or four...) wrongs don't make a right.

Oh, and what are those concerns that I apparently have? Because that sounds strangely similar to most replys I get (from people who don't even know what I do for a living) when I say homeopathy doesn't have any scientific basis: they insinuate I must work for a pharmaceutical company, and I "obviously" don't want to bite the hand that feeds me. But maybe you just know more about me (and my secret agenda) than I do?

Reply Parent Score: 1