Implication: Women would be better off with pair programming (which is atypical):
"We can make software engineering more people-oriented with pair programming and more collaboration. Unfortunately, there may be limits to how people-oriented certain roles at Google can be and we shouldn't deceive ourselves or students into thinking otherwise (some of our programs to get female students into coding might be doing this)"
Implication: Again, women would be better off with programming cooperatives at a more fundamental level than the current Google model:
"Allow those exhibiting cooperative behavior to thrive"
Implication: Women do not thrive in stressful situations as much as men do; and since software development is often stressful (by design) due to deadlines, this makes them less successful:
"Make tech and leadership less stressful. Google already partly does this with its many stress reduction courses and benefits."
But he has no basis for this claim, and as someone in the field I see no rationale for his argument. It makes literally, no sense, whatsoever.
There's no scientifically accepted rationale for the basis of his argument.
I don't disagree with the bolded, specifically; but I'd have to as you to go from the bolded, which you present here and to which we agree, to the conclusion that there is a natural difference between men and women with respect to software engineering, design and development.
Non-discriminatory ways to reduce the gender gap
Below I'll go over some of the differences in distribution of traits between men and women that I
outlined in the previous section and suggest ways to address them to increase women's
representation in tech without resorting to discrimination.
Google is already making strides in
many of these areas, but I think it's still instructive to list them:
●
Women on average show a higher interest in people and men in things
○
We can make software engineering more people-oriented with pair programming
and more collaboration. Unfortunately, there may be limits to how
people-oriented certain roles at Google can be and we shouldn't deceive
ourselves or students into thinking otherwise (some of our programs to get
female students into coding might be doing this).
●
Women on average are more cooperative
○
Allow those exhibiting cooperative behavior to thrive. Recent updates to Perf may
be doing this to an extent, but maybe there's more we can do.
○
This doesn't mean that we should remove all competitiveness from Google.
Competitiveness and self reliance can be valuable traits and we shouldn't
necessarily disadvantage those that have them, like
what's been done in
education
.
●
Women on average are more prone to anxiety
____________________________________________________________________________
4
For heterosexual romantic relationships,
men are more strongly judged by status and women by beauty
.
Again, this has
biological
origins and is culturally universal.
○
Make tech and leadership less stressful. Google already partly does this with its
many stress reduction courses and benefits.
●
Women on average look for more work-life balance
while men have a higher drive for
status on average
○
Unfortunately, as long as tech and leadership remain high status, lucrative
careers, men may disproportionately want to be in them. Allowing and truly
endorsing (as part of our culture)
part time work
though can keep more women in
tech.
●
The male gender role is currently inflexible
○
Feminism has made great progress in freeing women from the female gender
role, but men are still very much tied to the male gender role. If we, as a society,
allow men to be more "feminine," then the gender gap will shrink, although
probably because men will leave tech and leadership for traditionally "feminine"
roles.
