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Men Overran a Job Fair For Women In Tech (wired.com) 692

"Every year the Grace Hopper Celebration, a conference and career fair aimed at non-males, brings women in the tech industry together," writes long-time Slashdot reader piojo. "This year, a large number of men showed up. The women were not pleased." Wired reports: AnitaB.org, the nonprofit that runs the conference, said there was "an increase in participation of self-identifying males" at this year's event. The nonprofit says it believes allyship from men is important and noted it cannot ban men from attending due to federal nondiscrimination protections in the US. Organizers expressed frustration. Past iterations of the conference have "always felt safe and loving and embracing," said Bo Young Lee, president of advisory at AnitaB.org, in a LinkedIn post. "And this year, I must admit, I didn't feel this way."

Cullen White, AnitaB.org's chief impact officer, said in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, that some registrants had lied about their gender identity when signing up, and men were now taking up space and time with recruiters that should go to women. "All of those are limited resources to which you have no right," White said. [...] During the conference, videos posted to TikTok showed a sea of men waiting in line to enter the conference or speak with recruiters in the expo hall. Men and women are seen running into the expo as a staffer yells for them to slow down. Avni Barman, the founder of female-talent focused media platform Gen She, says she immediately noticed "tons" more men and a more chaotic scene this time compared to previous years.
According to Layoffs.fyi, tech companies around the world laid off more than 400,000 workers in 2022 and 2023. "As job cuts bite, all prospective tech workers have become more desperate for opportunities," reports Wired.
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Men Overran a Job Fair For Women In Tech

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  • Fluidity (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @08:08AM (#63901863)

    Sometimes people can be male, and sometimes they can be female. Shouldn't the conference be welcoming to all?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      No, it's only sexist when men do it.
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 )

        Yes, the fair should have been illegal in the first place. You can't discriminate on the basis of gender. It's *illegal* .

    • Sometimes people can be male, and sometimes they can be female. Shouldn't the conference be welcoming to all?

      You must be new in the USA. No, this is very specifically for women, and not at all for men.

      This is like how "bring our daughters to work day ended up being called Bring our sons and daughters to work day. Mere wordsmithing to cover the sexist nature of the event. I helped with these for years. The boys were basically ignored.

  • by kenh ( 9056 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @08:11AM (#63901873) Homepage Journal

    Please define the terms "men" and "women" - I'm not a biologist. [youtu.be]

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by cayenne8 ( 626475 )

      Please define the terms "men" and "women"

      IN 99% of people its easy.

      XY chromosomes and an external pee-pee = Man.

      XX chromosomes and an internal pee-pee = Woman.

      Until the past 5 years or so...that was pretty much universally "a given".

      • IN 99% of people its easy.

        And what should the judge do with the other 1%? Just say "fuck 'em"?

        We're talking about a judge and equal protection for all under the law. Seriously what do you propose.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 )

        Just to FYI this...

        0.5% are transsexual
        3.5% are bisexual (to varying degrees)
        3% are homosexual (also to varying degrees- I've known homosexual dads)
        That number is *up* from the past when it was about 4% and transsexuals' were not even broken out. Of course, in that past time we also saw homosexuals, transsexuals, and bisexuals beaten and murdered as well as outcast by friends and family. Sooo I think the number in the past the percentages didn't reflect the real reality. I mean look at all the anti-gay c

        • Also, doctors almost *randomly* assign gender to babies with ambiguous gender at the same time they cut off tails

          lol that's not a thing. [goes to google]. AAaaAAaaaaa

    • by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @10:05AM (#63902397) Journal
      Also, please define "Chief Impact Officer". It sounds like a fancy term for crash test dummy.
  • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Thursday October 05, 2023 @08:12AM (#63901875) Homepage Journal

    If men are this desperate for jobs then what's that say about the whole system?

    It says men and women need to join forces against the real enemy, the system that requires everyone to have a job to survive while also providing motivation to reduce the number of jobs in order to maximize profit... and the ultra-wealthy men who profit from it.

    This whole "don't come here to take our jobs" mentality misses the point big time whether you're talking about a jobs fair for women, or the H1B program, or whatever else might be the argument of the day. The ruling class is running off with all the profit while the rest of us do all the work, and therefore it becomes necessary for us to fight over their table scraps... which is exactly what's happening here. Men and women fighting over a dwindling resource. Hey women, that man took your cookie, say the CEOs and boards and investors running off with dozens or hundreds of cookies.

    • by roman_mir ( 125474 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @08:26AM (#63901931) Homepage Journal

      No, your comment is a flamebait, the actual news here is that men are finally getting fed with all of this discrimination nonsense. Job fairs are nothing new and they have existed in the past and will exist in the future. What hasn't existed in the past is this blatant discrimination where 50% of the population can be legally excluded from seeking employment and the so called 'progressives' and various types on the left are now stuck in this untenable position of cheering *for* discrimination. Men are finding loopholes in this and they are right to do it.

      Also of-course by the very idiotic rules that now make it politically impossible to declare what a woman is [politico.com], anything and anyone can be a woman and you cannot refute it, if I feel like a woman, I am a woman, done.

      • by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @09:23AM (#63902189)

        No, your comment is a flamebait, the actual news here is that men are finally getting fed with all of this discrimination nonsense.

        While it’s mainstream to view it as ok because men are already given too many unfair advantages that breaks down with the slightest inspection. While it’s true men on average are afforded things like being listened to, all of the important things are basic human rights and the common decency everyone should be shown until proven otherwise and no one should ever feel guilty for having in the first place. The few toxic things, like dominance issues and power imbalance abuses are perpetrated by a very small minority like 10% or even under 1%. Yet all men suffer as a result while the majority of men would be fine with getting rid of these things because they don’t participate or like them either. Quite often there is a blind spot for class awareness and it gets blamed on a particular sex instead, Joe pumping gas down the block isn’t the one with his patriarchal boot on our necks. Accountability needs to happen but it needs to be precise and individualized because when you aren’t the damage done is exactly the kind that perpetuates the very problems trying to be solved.

      • by nasch ( 598556 )

        this blatant discrimination where 50% of the population can be legally excluded from seeking employment

        Did you not read the summary?

        "it cannot ban men from attending due to federal nondiscrimination protections in the US."

    • by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @08:34AM (#63901967) Homepage Journal

      This whole "don't come here to take our jobs" mentality misses the point big time whether you're talking about a jobs fair for women, or the H1B program, or whatever else might be the argument of the day. The ruling class is running off with all the profit while the rest of us do all the work, and therefore it becomes necessary for us to fight over their table scraps... which is exactly what's happening here. Men and women fighting over a dwindling resource. Hey women, that man took your cookie, say the CEOs and boards and investors running off with dozens or hundreds of cookies.

      Well, there's more to it than that.

      You now have this "diversity" and "equity" thing in the mix, where to get better DEI...if you have a male resume, it gets put straight into the circular bin in favor of any other checkbox class.

      Here it looks like regular men, are just using the system to game it....just claim you're non-binary, and if they pass you over..sue the shit outta them.

      Basically same game other sides have been taking....and now that they say you cannot define "man" or "woman"...well, they really can't hold that against you now, can they?

      Women have done this to themselves...

    • by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @09:41AM (#63902275)
      Quite a large bit of trouble is created by the capital ruling class when they exert dominance over women, women conflate class with genitals and when they can’t get proper justice enforced against that ruling class they take it out on middle class and below men because they can exert toxic dominance over them. The act of mistreating all men, especially young men, for the crimes of a few drives the vast majority of men, who never were going to participate in that toxic behavior, into reciprocating that same toxic behavior by pushing the statistical curve toward creating more toxic individuals which keeps the cycle of hate going. Equality of outcome is highly toxic while equality of opportunity, and equity provide social cohesion and better everyone’s lives without forcing people into roles they do not want to be part of.
  • by Going_Digital ( 1485615 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @08:13AM (#63901877)
    While I understand that women are underrepresented in tech jobs for a variety of reasons, There would be outcry if there was a similar recruitment event aimed at men, so why is it acceptable to have one for women?

    There is a world of difference between holding an event where women are actively encouraged to consider roles in tech and a recruitment event that try’s to exclude a particular group of people. If anything l think the men that turned up were using their imitative to try and get a job.

    The ONLY criteria that recruitment should be based on is ability to do the job, if there are too few women with the required experience or qualifications that is not fixed by excluding men from access to recruiters, it is fixed by getting more girls in school taking appropriate subjects and for career advisers to actively promote tech careers to girls. Once people are adults it is too late to change the balance.

    • by Merk42 ( 1906718 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @08:27AM (#63901935)

      While I understand that women are underrepresented in tech jobs for a variety of reasons, There would be outcry if there was a similar recruitment event aimed at men, so why is it acceptable to have one for women?

      because they are underrepresented, and because of those reasons.
      If there is some field that is underrepresented by men, I'm sure it'd welcome similar recruitment.

      Also, the tech environment can be incredibly hostile towards women, as various comments on this article will no doubt be evidence of.

    • by coofercat ( 719737 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @09:21AM (#63902183) Homepage Journal

      > There would be outcry if there was a similar recruitment event aimed at men, so why is it acceptable to have one for women?

      Duh! Because woman are a marked minority in tech. There's no need to have such a show for men - for men it's called "normal life".

      In just about all male dominated fields, some proportion of women who try it, or are in it long term experience some level of discrimination, abuse, sexual misconduct or misogyny. Funnily enough, those women don't think "I'll just tough it out because the only criteria should be based on ability". They look at their situation, realise that it's largely futile and decide to switch to some other career. This is one of the many reasons tech is so heavily male dominated today.

      If this is hard to understand because you've never lived it, then I'll throw an scenario at you. Imagine you're at a job, which starts out great and all is well. After a time though, you find that in meetings when you suggest an idea or improvement you're not really listened to, or outwardly belittled for your contribution. Meanwhile, one of your colleagues offers some inferior idea, and is praised for it openly, and perhaps gets promotions or bonuses on the back of his amazing contributions. How would you feel about that? Would you perhaps think about leaving to go somewhere else?

      The hard part for men to understand is anything with a sexual angle. Imagine if you had all the above, but also people kept trying to look up your skirt or down your top, or commenting about your body or looks or how you're "nice, but not my type" or worse pretty constantly. Even if no one ever talked about you, but commented about other women that walk by or were in the news or whatever - then frankly I can't imagine why anyone would want to put up with it. Again, these are the reasons women need "safe spaces" to think about working in tech - if nothing else, they can keep each other away from the pervy letches that seem to lurk in most male dominated areas.

      Just to cover this last point off, for anyone saying "we're not all like that". That's true, but we are all at fault for it. If you're "not like that", then you need to tell anyone else who is "like that" that what they're doing is unacceptable. You need to be actively calling it out and making it stop. If you aren't doing so, then yes, you are "like that" I'm afraid.

      • by Bert64 ( 520050 ) <.moc.eeznerif.todhsals. .ta. .treb.> on Thursday October 05, 2023 @10:32AM (#63902507) Homepage

        Imagine you're at a job, which starts out great and all is well. After a time though, you find that in meetings when you suggest an idea or improvement you're not really listened to, or outwardly belittled for your contribution. Meanwhile, one of your colleagues offers some inferior idea, and is praised for it openly, and perhaps gets promotions or bonuses on the back of his amazing contributions.

        This happens, it's called favoritism and it often has nothing to do with gender, and even when it does sometimes gender favoritism benefits women too.

        The hard part for men to understand is anything with a sexual angle. Imagine if you had all the above, but also people kept trying to look up your skirt or down your top, or commenting about your body or looks or how you're "nice, but not my type" or worse pretty constantly

        Men face these kind of comments too.

        Just to cover this last point off, for anyone saying "we're not all like that". That's true, but we are all at fault for it. If you're "not like that", then you need to tell anyone else who is "like that" that what they're doing is unacceptable. You need to be actively calling it out and making it stop. If you aren't doing so, then yes, you are "like that" I'm afraid.

        People naturally don't want to get involved in things which do not directly affect them. If you do that, you will be often branded a troublemaker and face discrimination yourself.

  • for men in nursing?

    Anyone should be able to do any job they want without fear of discrimination and bias. But just because there are fewer women in tech (or fewer men in nursing) doesn't necessarily mean there is bias and discrimination. Due to societal, cultural, and historical factors some careers are just more popular with some people than with others. Having a 50 / 50 (or 45 / 45 /10, depending on how you count genders) split doesn't mean that we have suddenly achieved a bias-free, discrimination-free
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

      Where are the school openings for anyone in nursing?

      There are literally not enough openings in nursing schools to meet demand.

      The vast majority of applicants to these programs are female.

      Men have more career opportunities than do women, because not only can they get hired for all of the same jobs as women (male nurses are attractive as diversity hires, and also, because nurses often have to do hard work like moving corpulent patients) but they can also get hired for jobs where they traditionally don't want

    • There are actually efforts to get men into nursing.

      Go away.
    • by GlennC ( 96879 )

      That's exactly the question that was posed in the Journal of Nursing. A link to the article is below.

      https://rn-journal.com/journal-of-nursing/time-to-recruit-more-men-into-the-profession-of-nursing [rn-journal.com]

      Any more questions?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Fuck off, Troll.

      You don't care about men in nursing, you're just concern trolling.

      1 second of googling shows you're full of shit.

      https://www.england.nhs.uk/201... [england.nhs.uk]

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      We have had multiple programmes to get more men into traditionally female dominated jobs, such as nursing, teaching at primary level, child/elderly care and so on. In the UK they usually take the form of free money for men who get qualified in those areas. Serious cash too, not peanuts.

    • by godrik ( 1287354 )

      I'm glad you asked!
      The annual meeting of the American Association for Men in Nursing is in 2 weeks!

      I think you can still register!

      https://www.aamn.org/2023-annu... [aamn.org]

  • Reality of choice (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @08:19AM (#63901895)

    The simple reality is that the current social and political climate has established the scenario where gender is one's choice, rather than an immutable trait.

    For better or for worse the result of that is that any event, group, club, etc that seeks to represent one gender over another will be open to anyone joining because you can't just lift up the proverbial skirt and check anymore - it's all about feelings that can't be confirmed.

    It'd be like hosting a conference for Dallas Cowboys fans and then complaining that people are wearing Atlanta Falcons merchandise. Its questionable but you still can't prove that they're not a Cowboys fan.

    And honestly I don't see this pushing for gender as a choice as being good for people with medically confirmed sexual dysmorphia. If you are merely born a certain way - eg you're born as a member of a race, or with a hair color etc. Or even with sexual dysmorphia - then that's an immutable trait that one can't change, and criticism or ostracization is wrong and unfair. However in the case of most non-binary or gender fluid persons who are going the route of insisting that gender is a choice: choices are generally open to criticism. "I hate meat eaters" is a morally different statement to "I hate short people.", because one is a choice and the other is not.

    • See here [youtube.com] and also here [youtube.com] for a detailed explanation of why from a biologist.

      I find the most interesting fact is that men & women do have slightly different brains, and while that doesn't affect performance it does show up in a variety of brain scans.

      When trans men & women are scanned their brains appear to be of the sex they identify with, not the one assigned at birth. Moreover when homosexual men and women's brains are scanned their brains appear to be the sex they were assigned at birth. So
  • What is a non-male? Do they mean "woman"? Sounds like this jobs fair doesn't even know basic biology.
  • holy sexist (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Blymie ( 231220 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @08:56AM (#63902057)

    Past iterations of the conference have "always felt safe and loving and embracing," said Bo Young Lee, president of advisory at AnitaB.org, in a LinkedIn post. "And this year, I must admit, I didn't feel this way."

    --

    What? WHAT!! Men being around, makes people feel unsafe? What a horrible, sexist thing to say. And I mean that legitimately.

    Yes, some men are criminals, that does not mean ALL men are criminals, and women murder, rape, kill, maim too!

    What a sexist ideal!

    Frankly, I have zero sympathy. If you reverse the roles, and it feels wrong, then it's wrong! Now imagine a men only job fair! Or men complaining about "all these horrible women around, this is a male only job fair".

    What a horribly sexist, discriminatory tthng to do! You know, women aren't fragile little flowers that need coddling and are incapable of success. The women I know are reasonably strong willed, able to compete for positions.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by quantaman ( 517394 )

      Past iterations of the conference have "always felt safe and loving and embracing," said Bo Young Lee, president of advisory at AnitaB.org, in a LinkedIn post. "And this year, I must admit, I didn't feel this way."

      --

      What? WHAT!! Men being around, makes people feel unsafe? What a horrible, sexist thing to say. And I mean that legitimately.

      Yes, some men are criminals, that does not mean ALL men are criminals, and women murder, rape, kill, maim too!

      What a sexist ideal!

      Surely you recognize the difference between an open event with a large of men and an women-only event that has been overrun by men who largely must have realized they weren't supposed to be there and showed up anyway.

      Yes, I can understand why those women felt unsafe around that group of men in that specific context.

      Frankly, I have zero sympathy. If you reverse the roles, and it feels wrong, then it's wrong! Now imagine a men only job fair! Or men complaining about "all these horrible women around, this is a male only job fair".

      What a horribly sexist, discriminatory tthng to do! You know, women aren't fragile little flowers that need coddling and are incapable of success. The women I know are reasonably strong willed, able to compete for positions.

      A male only job fair, so pretty much every other tech event?

      When X is the characteristic that benefits from discrimination then an X-only requirement is bad because it furthers that discriminatio

    • Look, I know we don't like to think about it, much less talk about it, but there's a reason why Japan has women only cars on packed subways & trains.

      Men can and will hit on anything with a pulse anywhere they are. For a lot of guys dating is about "Drop enough bombs and you're bound to hit something". And that gets exhausting for women.

      The roles don't reverse because that's just not how our species works. Men are much, much, *much* more aggressive at seeking mates, and will do it literally anywh
  • Rights (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jiro ( 131519 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @09:17AM (#63902161)

    "All of those are limited resources to which you have no right," White said.

    But remember:

    noted it cannot ban men from attending due to federal nondiscrimination protections in the US

    Which is another way of saying "they had every right". (What do you think a "federal nondiscrimination protection" is other than a right?)

    What she did was hope that she could discriminate under the table by implying it was women-only when she knows very well that being women-only isn't permitted. Then she got upset when she wasn't able to discriminate in a way she was not permitted to do anyway.

    What next, a Slashdot headline "black people overrun a whites-only job fair"?

  • by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @09:30AM (#63902219)

    https://www.eeoc.gov/prohibite... [eeoc.gov]

    "Under the laws enforced by EEOC, it is illegal to discriminate against someone (applicant or employee) because of that person's race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. It is also illegal to retaliate against a person because he or she complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit.

    The law forbids discrimination in every aspect of employment."

    These fairs were illegal from the start.

  • It's just BS (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jcochran ( 309950 ) on Thursday October 05, 2023 @10:37AM (#63902531)

    We have now a conference for only women that can't legally prohibit men from attending due to Federal law. A large number of men attend causing much wailing and wringing of hands over those men attending.

    Now imagine a different conference intended for only men, but due to Federal law they can't prohibit women from attending.... FULL STOP. If such a conference were planned, there would be an immediate outcry about the organizers of that conference daring to even contemplate such an outrage. There would be no worries about women attending since the conference would never be allowed to exist in the first place.

    Why the completely separate treatment of two different conferences that are identical except for which gender is desired and which is not?

    Frankly, all that those men were doing was illustrating the hypocrisy of current society. No more and no less.

  • What's that quote? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SuiteSisterMary ( 123932 ) <slebrun@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Thursday October 05, 2023 @12:19PM (#63902953) Journal
    What's that quote? "When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression."

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