{"id":35392,"date":"2017-08-17T11:04:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T09:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=35392"},"modified":"2017-08-17T11:04:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T09:04:00","slug":"women-in-tech-beyond-biology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2017\/08\/women-in-tech-beyond-biology\/","title":{"rendered":"Women in Tech – beyond the biology explanation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We’re not surprised to see so few female coders<\/h2>\n
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“Early May 2013. We must be about a hundred, gathered in front of the Free headquarters, in Paris. Age: around 20. Few girls but I’m not surprised<\/strong>“.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Thus starts an <\/span>article<\/span><\/a> written by a young lady going for the try-outs of the Tech Coding School “42”<\/strong>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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There are few girls in Tech<\/strong> whether it be in France or elsewhere. And we’re not surprised. This seems normal.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The so-called biological explanation<\/h2>\n
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Quite recently, a Google employee<\/strong> found countless reasons to explain this<\/a>. He explained how women were not equipped to make it in the Tech world<\/strong>. How they were <\/span>biologically<\/span><\/strong> formatted for subordinate roles<\/strong>. It must have taken him some time to make this look scientific and to write it <\/span>nicely<\/span><\/span>. The thing is, it’s all distinguished rubbish. Because, for a true scientific analysis one can’t <\/span>just<\/span><\/span> rely on partial informations. And he’s omitted a whole part of the story.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Let’s take a look at some more informations, taken from other scientific studies. They might shed a new light of the subject.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Gendered beliefs are set early on<\/h2>\n
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In French schools, Math\/Science teachers tend to give more talking time to boys<\/strong> than they do to girls. Even when the latter score better. This is not done on purpose, of course. When asked, they <\/span>truly<\/span><\/span> believe they give each student the same talking time. It’s called bias<\/strong>. A boy’s point of view in Math has more value than a girl’s<\/strong>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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One could even wonder at the school’s role in “formatting” gender discrepancies. A recent study in the US showed that at age 5, girls and boys view intelligence as <\/span>evenly<\/span><\/span> distributed. At age 6, when told a story about “an very intelligent person”, both girls and boys will assume that person is a male<\/strong>. <\/span>When presented with a game made “for <\/span><\/span>really<\/span><\/span> smart people” and one “for those who work <\/span><\/span>really<\/span><\/span> hard”, the 6-year-old girls would go for the “hard work one”<\/span><\/span>. When they were 5, they went for the “intelligent one”<\/strong>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The invisible skill for Tech: talent.<\/h2>\n
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Maybe<\/span><\/span> it’s not <\/span>just<\/span><\/span> school. Parents are more likely to google “is my son gifted?<\/strong>” than “is my daughter gifted?<\/strong>“. Even though intelligence is <\/span>evenly<\/span><\/span> distributed, 2\/3 of the members at Mensa (high IQ society) are men. Men assume they <\/span>are gifted<\/span> and go for the Mensa tests a lot more than women<\/strong>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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What are the initial skills required to make it in Tech? <\/span>Primarily<\/span><\/span> Science and Math<\/strong>. What prerequisites <\/span>are associated<\/span><\/span> with success in these subjects? <\/span>Oddly<\/span><\/span> enough, not hard work but innate talent<\/strong>. The “knack for it<\/strong>“, the mind for numbers<\/strong>. The French say “the Math bump”. <\/span>When success at a subject <\/span><\/span>is said<\/span><\/span> to <\/span><\/span>require<\/span><\/span> talent, do you think girls will go for it when they already doubt their intelligence at age 6<\/strong><\/span><\/span>?<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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No talent, no Tech ?<\/h2>\n
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It’s no wonder there are few girls in coding schools. Not that they are <\/span>intellectually<\/span><\/span> unprepared for it. But they <\/strong><\/span>are formatted<\/span><\/strong>, very early on, to doubt their abilities<\/strong>. <\/span>When browsing through the “Women of the FrenchTech” articles that talk about family background, few say they went against their parent’s will<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>One comes from a family of female engineers, others had parents who never doubted their abilities<\/strong><\/span><\/span>. And they made it in Tech<\/strong>. Surprised?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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What if we told girls the truth?<\/strong> No-one knows coding or mecanical engineering at birth<\/strong>. It’s not a God-given talent (although some may be better at this than others). Coding is downright hard work<\/strong>. There is no male gene for Tech. <\/span>But girls, <\/span><\/span>just<\/span><\/span> the same as boys, need to <\/span><\/span>be encouraged<\/span><\/span> and have parents\/teachers\/employers\/colleagues who believe in them<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>Just<\/span><\/span> as they would of men.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Letting go of the “good woman” status<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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When a girl is quiet, soft-spoken and interested in dolls, she is a good girl<\/strong>. <\/span>When a girl enjoys playing outside with a ball, is a natural leader,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>is interested<\/span><\/span> in science,\u00a0she <\/strong><\/span><\/span>is labeled<\/span> a “tomboy”<\/span><\/strong>. Do you know what the translation of “tomboy” is in French? It’s “failed boy”. A boy who fails is a girl. A girl is de facto inferior.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>In order to<\/span><\/span> make it to top positions in the Tech world, women must first accept to <\/span><\/span>be tagged<\/span><\/span> either as failing the good woman status<\/strong> or being a lesser man<\/strong><\/span><\/span>. Is it so surprising that they don’t rush to meet that standard?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Let us take all this into consideration when we talk about “Women in Tech”<\/strong>. It’s not biology. It’s early conditionning.<\/strong> And <\/span>maybe<\/span><\/span>, if we change both boys and girls gendered beliefs, we will <\/span>be surprised<\/span><\/span>. Surprised to see so many girls are in coding schools and thriving in Tech.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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We’re not surprised to see so few female coders “Early May 2013. We must be about a hundred, gathered in front of the Free headquarters, in Paris. Age: around 20. Few girls but I’m not surprised“. \u00a0 Thus starts an article written by a young lady going for the try-outs of the Tech Coding School<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":35396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10563],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tech"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}