Sexism, racism, discrimination, etc. the list goes on and on. We've all heard the casual jokes and jibes towards a person for their background or looks, and everyone has a little bit of bias in them somewhere. Usually this isn't a problem, but when there's gender inequality dominating the tech world, things have to change. The sex ratio in the technology industry shouldn't be so obviously inclined towards males. Sure, in certain regions, women simply do not have the same access to proper education required in the tech department as men, so companies like Google have established workshops to broaden their diversity within the corporation. However, this is just another example of the society that grants men with better opportunity, because despite such programs, any real improvement has yet to be revealed concerning the unjust situation (Manjoo). Employees should be hired based on their actual skill, rather than their gender.
For instance, one woman, who was hanging out with some male IT workers, was told, "You're female, you're physically incapable of understanding science." Ouch. She remained present long enough to hear the same group of men proudly discussing how they would purposely "sabotage" any female candidate's chances for a job with them. Another woman was told by a peer that, "Men's brains just work more logically." She then commented on her company's "male privilege." Many of her male coworkers were constantly earning promotions they had never expressed any effort or interest for, while she had, and earned wages twice as much as her (Tiku).
Of course, these views do not apply to everyone. 56 year old, male Robert Harker works as a Linux systems administrator in Silicon Valley and strongly disapproves of the sexism that occurs among the men in his work place. He states his disappointment in men and feels the need to apologize to women on the behalf of the male population, "I thought we were better than that. And now I find that I have to apologize for my gender" (Tiku).
There's typically a general awareness of existing prejudice in the labor force amongst it's workers, whether it is directed towards race or sex, but the knowledge means nothing if no appropriate actions are taken to balance the biased environment. Instilled judgement of a person because of society's impossible standards is only one of human nature's many flaws, but it's one that can be corrected. Nobody should automatically be given a disadvantage for being born differently.
I like how you used examples from other websites to emphasize the gender difference in our world. Also, I like how you included an example where people are trying to make a difference.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there is still sexism in our world, it's good to know that not all companies are gender biased and actually taking action to solve this problem.
I agree with your claim on how companies should put more effort into improving gender equality in their workplace. I also think that having the knowledge of discrimination between men and women doesn't help solve the problem unless they are taking action.
ReplyDeleteI like how you included different cases of gender inequality to prove the variety and large amounts of unfairness in the world.
I like how you were able to incorporate your own voice into your post. Great references from other sources.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed being exposed to many of the references you included in your response and think that it truly held the basis of support for your response. You had a strong idea of the many examples of bias towards women and race throughout your response and I agree with all the points you made. Yet, I think a really important aspect to think about is how companies may go about lowering this bias within their own companies and the reasoning behind this bias among people in general. I think that Google's reasons for incorporating more of the female gender is not all out of righteous intent.Google probably wanted to detriment sexism but they were mostly concerned about their own image as a company. Change in our society will only come if people truly believe in gender equality and advocate a difference.
ReplyDeleteI agree to your statement of there is an unbalance between workers in the tech industry. In today's society, big named tech companies such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook have a dominating number of male employees compared to female employees. In the modern world, these numbers should be relatively close to each other, rather than having the ratio between the two unbalanced, especially in the tech industry, which is an essential piece in today's society. I also liked how you included outside research about how some people in a workplace viewed women to be less capable of doing something than men, because it illustrates how in the modern world, people still have the idea that men are better than women doing something, as this idea has still stuck with some people throughout all these years.
ReplyDeleteI like how you included references from other sources. I agree that employees should be hired because of their skill and individual capabilities. I think although men are dominating women in the tech industry, they should not be competing with one another when they are both capable of working in the same field. I also agree that actions should be taken once aware of the situation. Google's workshops are slowly making the effort to improve diversity in the company, and they are aware of the unfairness between their men and women. Overall, your points were clear and your post was a great read.
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