I hate it how male geek culture treats female geeks. Corporations cannot discriminate, but when it comes to startup teams, open source, community events, there are no limitations. I'm only able to work for weird companies, where I get hired by owners themselves because they realize they could make money on my skills. Otherwise, it feels more like an old boys club, where they might accept a young single gal for her looks, but not somebody older and married. No matter how good my skills are. Good skills even piss them off. I was only able to contribute to open source under a male nickname, when I use my real name, I get bullied or ignored 100% of the time. When I read job ads, I see many targeting a certain group, like starting from "do you like beer?" and ending with "you're going to have many female fans". I like beer but not in an office, and I'm heterosexual. I realize though I read those ads literary, but it doesn't make them sound better.

Welcome to AFF, sorry about your issue within that type of culture, because I sometimes feel the same way through another one. Then again.... we all do.

Welcome to the forum.

Sounds like an issue within every "culture." Almost all cultures/industries are dominated by males and females are often bullied and looked down on.

Quite.

no kidding

As if.

I can't believe *every* "culture" would be male dominated. What are all the women doing?

You must be male, and not particularly observant.

Having the kids and bringing them up, cleaning the homes and washing the mens clothes.
Thanks to Mother nature we women are already on the back foot when it comes to being seen as the dominating sex. Our urge is to nurture and protect, it has to be or the World would end. Simple.So on that basis, we girls have the upper hand anyway whether men like it or not.

And always remember, behind every great man is a woman who thinks he's a moron.

Certain professions and industries are male dominated as are some are female dominated.  Think male nurse or elementary school teacher - most in those professions are female.  

Married women are discriminated against at work, period.  They have babies, take maternity leave, take off time when their kids are sick, leave on time to pick up kids from school or daycare.   Usually women take more responsibility for parenting and household chores which makes them more tired.  Also there are single parents, usually mothers, who are responsible for raising children during the week while fathers often have custody on weekends.  

There is also age discrimination because many employers will not hire older workers because they have family responsibilites, aging parents, children, health problems.

This discrimination is due to greed solely because employers do not want to hire more workers.  They are trying to squeeze everything out of a worker even if it destroys family and culture life.  It is just easier to exploit younger workers and make them work harder under the false pretense that they should be "paying their dues".

Sorry, I often find vice-versa! Females lately are likely to bully males and treat them like criminals!
I feel like what African-Americans go through!

This post was last modified: 08-28-2011 02:48 AM by RJARRRPCGP.

Yes, we are horrible creatures, picking on poor little males.  Honestly, the number of females raping and murdering is quite appalling these days!  Not to mention how often we assault people, commit robbery with violence, use home invasion to get money, and go out and shoot others for no reason.  Add to that the huge numbers of us that are into terrorism as a political tool.  And then we dare to whinge that we're still not getting paid at the same rate as men!  How double-dare we?
Alison

This post was last modified: 08-28-2011 03:18 AM by Alison.

Discrimination of all sorts is alive and well here in oz. Females who are married with kids are not wanted around. Grace was forced to resign from her job when she became pregnant. Older  males are not wanted either as I suppose we stick up for our rights. So they just employ the young at minimum wage.

I remember having a similar conversation about gender discrimination a few years ago with a work colleague (male).  His big argument was that women "keep getting pregnant all the time"!  Like they did it on purpose, all by themselves, just to be difficult...
Alison

Interestingly, the IT profession was not always as male-dominated as it is now:
When computer programming was "women's work"

I feel that, by shutting women out from management positions, companies do themselves a disservice. The same goes for countries shutting women out from government positions. Men tend to be more risk-takers. That can be a good thing at the right time, as taking bigger risks tends to have a higher payout. Of course, if the risk should not be taken at that time, the cost can be just as big. Women, on the other hand, tend more to be cautious and nurturing. I think those are traits that should be placed in high positions to keep the risk-takers in check.

Of course, that is kind of a generalization. You'll find exceptions among both genders, but that does tend to be how it breaks down, more often than not.