[Linux-aus] Special support for women

[Lev Lafayette]

Hi Noel,

On Wed, October 30, 2013 11:05 am, Noel Butler wrote:
>
> If you want the job, you must love the industry, so you learn the job,
> for IT you need obviously have a passion for it, study hard, and prove
> to prospective employers you are better than the next candidate,
> regardless of your sex, I've been on interview panels where I elected to
> hire a woman over a man, simply because SHE was the best candidate, I
> have also hired a man over a woman, because HE was the best candidate.

What about the references posted by Brianna and Jessica?

The problem is that due to structural discrimination, due to our own
internal and often unrealized biases, is that less than optimal choices
are made regarding gender etc., even in circumstances where formal
equality exists.

As mentioned there are plenty of good empirical studies that illustrate
this. By all means, find grounded criticism against those studies, but
please just ignore them because the results are contrary to what you wish
was the case. Derive opinions from facts, not the other way around.

This has costs involved, not just to the individuals concerned in the
transaction, but to everyone who misses out on having (for example) a more
optimal candidate selected for an IT position because of these biases. As
this has a social cost (c.f., externalities) legal systems can and do
intervene to rectify this.

Regards,


-- 
Lev Lafayette, BA (Hons), GCertPM, MBA
mobile:  0432 255 208
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