I think two things make it more likely for me to encounter incidents of sexism:
1) I do some programming for my job, but a majority of it involves going out and meeting other developers, learning about their work, and seeing how we can make our API better for them. I live in SF so I can't get a coffee without bumping into another developer. I bet I have many more interactions than someone who is developing full time in their home or office. More interactions increases chances for good and bad types of interactions.
2) Since I have been researching sexism in the industry, I have started to notice small slights and snubs more. I went for years brushing off countless minor incidents. I still don't get offended easily, but I do notice things more. For example, checkout the gun.io landing page right now (Beards of Experience). I like gun.io, but their homepage is definitely not female-friendly, and I noticed it immediately.
I'd wager that people who have had some kind of experience that really bothered them, or ones who have recently started learning more about gender bias, will suddenly start to notice all the little "micro agressions" more. Even my male colleagues have started noticing them more since we have been discussing it recently.
One of them even said "it's like when you get a new car, you suddenly start to notice how many people drive the same car as you do".
Also I guess people are more likely to either be "careful" or to adapt their behavior successfully if there's one woman on a 5 person team and one or more of the guys are in some way sexist or inappropriate, than if it's a casual interaction with someone at a coffeeshop or conference.
I don't know how I feel about the "Beards of Experience" thing. I guess I'd be annoyed if it were a permanent branding of the site, but as a one-off short campaign, I'm I think I'm fine with it. It does only focus on a specific group (I assume it is "unix neckbeards vs. hipster/corporate/suave designer developers", ignoring women entirely), but for a short marketing message, it's probably better to strongly appeal to a subset vs. be "meh" for everyone. It's not on its face offensive, which would be bad even if 5-10% of people were seriously offended and 50% were approving, just narrowly scoped. But it's obviously bad if that kind of exclusion is the default across the whole industry all the time.
It's stupid crap like "Beards of Experience" though that fall out of the ephemeral "boys club" in our industry which in turn re-enforce it. This ultimately allows morons like that mentioned by the OP to have the balls to stay something overtly sexist. It's all part of the same problem. It's a giant embarrassment and it wasn't always like this. And it's not a "technology" thing or a "software" thing, it's a "startuppy web/mobile application development" thing so it has nothing to do with the actual discipline but more to do with a rotten aspect of the culture that's grown out of control.
The solution, in my view, has less to do with going out of our way to bring women into the fold and more to do with not putting stupid shit like "Beards of Experience" on your homepage.
Concur about "Beards of Experience"; maybe if there were a tastefully done "Braids of Experience" that corresponds to it on a timed slider it may not be as lopsided as just having "Beards of Experience".
It's not offensive, but it is mildly sexist (implying that only those who have beards can be that experienced, and as women cannot generally grow beards…)
I think you're making the mistake of critiquing the beards thing in isolation. The point is that it's a drop in a bucket. You can look at any individual marketing campaign and come up with perfectly valid reasons it's not really sexist, but in aggregate it's problematic.
The key word in mwetzler's comment is "microaggressions". It's the small things which are probably defensible in isolation but when viewed together exhibit some pretty obvious patterns.
If we accepted that "Beards of Experience" is sexist, we would have to accept that it's also racist (many Asian men can't grow beards like the guy on gun.io) and maybe homophobic. Don't you think it would get ridiculous at that point?
What about parenting sites where the design and images are clearly targeted at mothers (and not fathers)? Are they evil? Sexist?
I don't see anything that makes me think it's homophobic? Are you implying that gay men tend to be beardless?
And yes. Parenting sites that assume that fathers can't be parents are sexist. Parenting sites that assume that fathers won't be primary caretakers because their target demographic's culture is sexist and doesn't understand that male parents are important are fence-sitting and sexist by omission.
I don't see anything that makes me think it's homophobic?
Me neither. But then again, I don't see anything that makes me think it's sexist. Or racist, for that matter.
And yes. Parenting sites that assume that fathers can't be parents are sexist.
Well, that's the problem I'm trying to highlight. They probably assume no such thing. But we must brand them as sexist by the same token that we are not supposed to tolerate a guy with a beard on an IT recruitment site.
Here's another example: when Nike uses a photograph of a tall black guy to advertise their basketball shoes - are they being racist, sexist and disrespectful to short people?
> Well, that's the problem I'm trying to highlight. They probably assume no such thing.
That's true. It's a good thing someone points it out, then.
> Here's another example: when Nike uses a photograph of a tall black guy to advertise their basketball shoes - are they being racist, sexist and disrespectful to short people?
There's nothing evil or even sexist, IMO, about reinforcing stereotypes. However, given that there is a shortage of tech workers, and there are fewer women in tech than would be predicted based on accomplishment in other fields (bio/chem/pharma/med, specifically), I think it's reasonable to make an effort to be inclusive and try to reach out to women when recruiting or conducting other professional activities.
It's even more wrong to criticize someone aggressively for sexism in this case, but overall I think there would be net gains to everyone by attracting and retaining more women in technology. So, while it's not evil or sexist, "beards in technology" is counter to one's own interests even as a male in technology.
It's not evil. It's not mean-spirited. It is a tad sexist, but not in a super offensive way. Probably the worst thing about it is that it's turning away some women and some feminist men. I doubt Gun.io intended that.
I think it's a good example of an easy thing to change for the tech community to be more inviting to women. If we want to break down stereotypes and gender ratios in tech, one thing we can do is make it more inviting for women to work here.
1) I do some programming for my job, but a majority of it involves going out and meeting other developers, learning about their work, and seeing how we can make our API better for them. I live in SF so I can't get a coffee without bumping into another developer. I bet I have many more interactions than someone who is developing full time in their home or office. More interactions increases chances for good and bad types of interactions.
2) Since I have been researching sexism in the industry, I have started to notice small slights and snubs more. I went for years brushing off countless minor incidents. I still don't get offended easily, but I do notice things more. For example, checkout the gun.io landing page right now (Beards of Experience). I like gun.io, but their homepage is definitely not female-friendly, and I noticed it immediately.
I'd wager that people who have had some kind of experience that really bothered them, or ones who have recently started learning more about gender bias, will suddenly start to notice all the little "micro agressions" more. Even my male colleagues have started noticing them more since we have been discussing it recently.
One of them even said "it's like when you get a new car, you suddenly start to notice how many people drive the same car as you do".