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Comment by unidentified103 | Hacker News Reader

Do you believe decisions like this are randomly made?

> "Why not offer everyone an 'intern buddy'"

Female interns could have complained about sexual harassment, female interns could have had lower rates of accepting return offers, etc.

> "Also, why change from opt-in to opt-out"

The program had been going on for a while. They could have had data that suggested that female interns would be interested in such a program but had fears about bringing it to the attention of their managers or had fears of the repercussions of being one of the few who accepted.

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As an aside, my first job involved mentoring software engineering interns.

I was the "intern buddy", and the policy was for all incoming interns regardless of their gender.

The transition from college to work life can be challenging for many people (it was for me, I wish I had an intern buddy), regardless of their gender.

Yeah, it seems to me like such a program would be a great addition to the onboarding process at many companies.

That sounds like a great program.

Do you believe that decisions like this exclude men because women are so much more fragile and need more help than men?

Do you think that men may not need similar help. "intern buddy" doesn't imply a gender role, and maybe should choose to be an inclusive concept instead of exclusive.

The also could have just winged it and made the decision without backing data based on the advice of a gender studies professional.

I don't know what reasons Microsoft had for making the program exclusive to women, because I think men would also benefit. Here's my guess: gender affects mentorship. An older man having a close working relationship with a young woman, inviting her out to lunch, and getting drinks after work carries implications that simply do not exist with a young man. Having these interactions take place within a socially sanctioned program helps everyone out because it clarifies the nature of the relationship to both the participants and the onlookers.

Microsoft didn't make the program.

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