> I'm not sure it's helpful to point out that other fields also have similar or even worse problems.
I think it goes to the motivation:
- If the motivation is to encourage gender balance/equality, then looking at and comparing with other fields is perfectly reasonable.
- If the motivation is that tech is a high paid yet incredibly low (physical) risk field, then it is self-serving to care about gender balance/equality here and not in other areas.
For example, I know a female completion engineer (oil rigs) who makes stupid amounts of money but lives as the lone woman on an oil platform for weeks at a time and smells horrible for days after. She knows it's an incredibly risky job and that if something goes wrong (rare but happens), odds aren't great for her. When she talks to women in engineering programs, she's openly sneered at.
> then it is self-serving to care about gender balance/equality here and not in other areas.
I do not follow this logic. I particularly care about problems in the tech industry because that's the industry I work in. Does that make me self-serving? I dunno, maybe, but I still think it's the right thing to do. I care about gender imbalance in the oil industry too, but unlike software engineering I have very little insight into hiring people on oil rigs.
I think it goes to the motivation:
- If the motivation is to encourage gender balance/equality, then looking at and comparing with other fields is perfectly reasonable.
- If the motivation is that tech is a high paid yet incredibly low (physical) risk field, then it is self-serving to care about gender balance/equality here and not in other areas.
For example, I know a female completion engineer (oil rigs) who makes stupid amounts of money but lives as the lone woman on an oil platform for weeks at a time and smells horrible for days after. She knows it's an incredibly risky job and that if something goes wrong (rare but happens), odds aren't great for her. When she talks to women in engineering programs, she's openly sneered at.