Comment by johngalt | Hacker News Reader

Comment by johngalt | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Please use care when dealing with the girls in your life. I know plenty of girls who want to build robots out of the pink legos. Or treat clothing with rules remarkably similar to programming. Please avoid preaching to these girls that they have to throw a ball or play action games to avoid limiting their career choices.

I've met a number of people who espouse views similar to yours. You believe you're sticking up for girls, but all the kids hear is that girly stuff is 'bad' and boy stuff is 'good'. Someday you might know a girl who really just wants to take care of babies. Do you think she is entitled to have that view? How would she take comments like yours? Will she think that because her goals are 'bad' that she is 'bad'. How would a boy who wants to take care of babies react when everyone sees baby toys as lesser? Do you think they will feel free to be more feminine? Or pressured to conform even further. You're reinforcing what you believe you oppose.

I'm not advocating for girls playing boy games.

I'm just saying that there's crazy amount of conditioning here, and that people might unconsciously make choices for their daughters that will lead them to a very different life.

I am also saying that there's crazy amount of pressure from kindergarten teachers, and who knows what other environments.

> Do you think she is entitled to have that view? How would she take comments like yours?

My comment was pretty much black&white. I'm not advocating pressure. I'm painting my views this simple to evoke questioning of one's choices regarding raising children.

Realistically, women do not go into tech do to tech looking unattractive to women. Women find this men dominant field unattractive for reasons that are mostly based on early conditioning. It's not that they are incompetent, they just do not try.

> people might unconsciously make choices for their daughters that will lead them to a very different life.

Do you think that life will be worse than if their upbringing was optimized to turn them into engineers? Playing devil's advocate... traditional gender roles must hold some value otherwise people wouldn't adhere to them. There are also many women who enjoy what would be considered a traditional role. I think this push to get women into tech at all costs is stealing quite a bit of agency from people who are exerting their free will (both in career choice and child raising technique).

When did I say that?

If you believe I'm advocating for women being raised to become engineers then you and everyone else who downvotes me is silly.

I'm talking about gender roles. They are here, they aren't changing, and no, you cannot do anything about women equity in tech without changing the values that are ingrained in human culture.

> They are here, they aren't changing, and no, you cannot do anything about women equity in tech without changing the values that are ingrained in human culture.

It does sound like you are advocating for changing traditional gender roles. Maybe you think there are other benefits to doing that beyond increasing tech adoption for women? All I'm saying is that there are positives associated with existing gender roles and working so hard to change them while ignoring the negatives that will come about doesn't seem wise.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com