>As a boss, I’ve deliberately tried to hire women to counteract the male-dominated work tech environments I’ve seen and been a part of.
I'm not sure what the situation is in the US but here in the UK, that element of 'affirmative action' is illegal.
I'm not sure what the situation is in the US but here in the UK, that element of 'affirmative action' is illegal.
He could also mean that in a tie for qualifications (between a man and a woman), he would hire the woman; which, while possibly illegal to the letter of the law (in the UK, possibly elsewhere), doesn't seem like a horrible thing. He explicitly states that it's to counter-act male-skewed tech work environments, so presumably if the work place were 50/50 men-to-women, he would relax this preference to women (as a tie-breaker).
Legality to one side, I would be interested in hearing more about this. Surely any hiring decision that's even remotely swayed by gender opposes the entire concept of gender equality?
I question this. Neither I nor Wikipedia should be used for legal advice, but there are exceptions to discrimination law, and the parent's comment seems to precisely meet one of them:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_employment_discrimination_l...