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Comment by Nesco | Hacker News Reader

Interesting that what the author found contrer-intuitive correspond in my case to my prior. It’s well known in France for the competitive exams that in domains with gender imbalance interviewers tend to help a bit the minority gender, I would guess it’s the same for tech interview.

As for the difference of observed performance some explanations can be easily found (even if it doesn’t mean they are true). Men are far likelier to be on the autistic spectrum than women and CS is may be the most suited domain for people on the spectrum

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I don’t think that “autistic spectrum” only applies for CS it happens for any field. We just need to let women do what they are good at and men what they are good at without any blame or shaming. Because there are masculine men working as manicurists or like in beauty and there are women who are working in construction. And in terms of predominately men or women industries it’s not that we cannot switch or cannot figure it out it’s just differences in our interests and biology. We just have to embrace it like they did it in Sweden (as I remember)

> We just need to let women do what they are good at and men what they are good at without any blame or shaming

This would be great, but the question remains what to do if the jobs men prefer are being paid more than jobs women prefer. Is sexism why that's the case, or is there some other driving factor why society is valuing male preferred jobs higher?

I think we'd already be a lot better off if the type of work you did was the only thing deciding how much you earn.

Are jobs that nerds prefer well-paid because society has a widespread bias towards valuing and supporting nerds?

Or is it just that the work itself is valuable (to someone), and also that's how much it takes to get someone to do it?

Another factor is that men have an incentive to seek higher paying jobs because some significant fraction of women want a partner who earns as much or more than they do.

This is the reason I joined tech. I could’ve done other careers but I wanted a job that could support a family and allow me to still be present with them. (And offer really good growth in income if family didn’t work out)

> This would be great, but the question remains what to do if the jobs men prefer are being paid more than jobs women prefer. Is sexism why that's the case, or is there some other driving factor why society is valuing male preferred jobs higher?

Yes, supply and demand is generally the driving factor for how things are priced.

Perhaps employers are actually valuing jobs based on the scarcity of candidates with the ability and willingness to do the work?

But that's not how that works. Your pay is "market rate" aka what your alternatives are, not theirs

Employers engage in cartel behaviour to suppress wages, regardless of scarcity

The obvious hypothesis is that men are in general more geared towards providing competitive value

> ... the jobs men prefer are being paid more than jobs women prefer. Is sexism why that's the case ...?

Obviously, no. Which sexist entity, or group, do you propose to be the culprit behind price-fixing entire industries?

Same thing happened in Australia. [1]

1: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-30/bilnd-recruitment-tri...

Autism is thought to be underdiagnosed in women because the presentation can be different in women.

>> Men are far likelier to be on the autistic spectrum than women and CS is may be the most suited domain for people on the spectrum

This is the most reasonable idea I think I have seen so far on the thread.

By all means, keep the ideas rolling.

This is important and I do not think the underlying cause(s) are necessarily simple or obvious.

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