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Comment by spcoll | Hacker News Reader

> Are they? That hasn't been my experience

Examples are abundant and easy to find. Here is an example of sexism and discrimination coming from Paul Graham. Highly relevant to this discussion about female founders at YC.

http://www.thewire.com/technology/2013/12/paul-graham-revive...

Women are getting harassed and discriminated against in Silicon Valley tech companies all the time. Take this example from Github: http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/19/5526574/github-sexism-scan...

This needs to stop. And comments like yours are just one more example of how deeply rooted sexism is on this site.

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It's funny you picked those two examples as the PG one isn't sexism at all, just quotes taken out of context. The second one, once the details came out showed was an unfortunate situation but also not really an example of sexism (IIRC). If those examples are the best you can come up with then that really undermines your premise.

I said that it hasn't been my experience IN NORWAY. And then you give as examples Paul Graham, Silicon Valley and the GitHub company. Are you even trying to be coherent?

Do you even have any experience with living in Norway or the Netherlands?

> And comments like yours are just one more example of how deeply rooted sexism is on this site.

Well of course. Not admitting/believing, or just being sceptical, of whether sexism really is a problem in some areas is of course evidence of sexism (presumably that I am sexist). So let me get this straight; if I admit/claim that there is a sexism problem, then that is evidence of sexism (since I admitted it). On the other hand, if I don't admit/claim it, that is also evidence of sexism.

I think you're making some reasonable points. I don't have experience living in Norway or the Netherlands, but I can say this: it hasn't been my experience, living in the UK, that women engineers are victims of any kind of discrimination, unconscious or otherwise.

However! I know that they are, because they have told me. I haven't seen it happen, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Unless there are women from the two countries you mentioned reading this thread, I'm not sure you will get valuable answers about the state of things in those countries. I can certainly believe that the situation is better there than in the US and the UK, as Norway in particular has a much better record with social issues like these.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that I think HN discussions often don't generate a huge amount of light on this topic, especially when it comes to questions which aren't about the situation in the US.

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