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You don't pressure anyone to pursue a career in a field they don't want to follow - at least not for a long time.
But I agree with you - reserved spots are nothing that should exist. If you can't trust your HR to hire someone regardless of gender/race/etc., the problem lies not (only) in the tech department.
Howevever, I think it's crucial to give girls the chance to get in contact with tech. If they like it, that's fine, also, if they don't.
Then again - when I see stereotypic advertisments with lipstick and pink advertising IT&tech jobs I just want to vomit violently across the desk. -
The push for diversity in tech is more than just people choosing to be involved or qualifications.
It's about systemic and cultural biases that push genders different directions. The way toys, games and activities are advertised can be heavily influenced by bias from a very young age.
And in the other spectrum, when it comes to POC in the tech field, it concerns the access and opportunities people have. I didn't own a computer until I was 17. Yet I work with a bunch of people who talk about how they started coding when they were 10 at home. Or some other thing like owning all gaming consoles and not believing I never played Mario as a kid.
To me, to increase diversity you have to start at the community level. So some of these programs are great. -
The problem with that way of thinking is: Why do it by race or sex? If the goal is to bring more people up and enrich the tech industry, race and sex should not matter. For example: You spoke of providing access to computers and development to people who cannot afford it. Why does it have to be a poor black person only or a poor white person only? Can't we just center our efforts around bringing opportunity to poor people in general? Diversity programs are centered around equity of outcome, and NOT equal opportunity. If we just put race and sex aside and didn't judge people by their skin color or gender, more passionate people of ALL KINDS will come into the tech industry. Diversity programs don't help because the people who are selected are sometimes pressured into a career they might not like or merit for the purpose being a statistic. It pins the sexes and the races against one another. I get what you are saying, but equal opportunity can't really be achieved the way things are now.
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When I just started University, and still to this day it's the same, (almost 3 years later).
When I just started they were always advertising like tech meets and stuff, for women! Women only! And to this day I haven't seen one only for males.
There was even a suggestion brought forth by the government that all women who study tech related things in University should get their student debt removed... What the fuck. -
There are lots of areas where not being a white male has been a disadvantage for a long time, to the extent that it has become ingrained in the culture at large.
We are more aware of that now, and trying to change it. In an ideal world we'd be able to say "really, everyone's welcome, even the blue skinned people who reproduce by budding," or whatever, and everything would be fair, and everyone would feel welcome.
We do not live in that ideal world. Some people don't feel we should welcome everyone. Others, even some who think they won't act with bias, will do so unconsciously. So to deal with that, systems introduce some bias to counteract the existing bias.
Is this perfectly fair? No of course not. It sucks for those affected. But it's sucked for generations for others. This isn't a machine learning problem where you can throw out your training data and start fresh. We have to retrain the production system on the fly, so that we can get rid of both cultural and artificial bias. -
Controversial tech rant begins here:
You know, I'm sure a lot of you guys know that it is pretty uncommon to encounter a woman who is who is into tech (and ranting about said tech). This has always made people question why. I personally feel like that is the case because those that do like tech, and those that don't just find a different interest. I thought that would suffice, but now Google and Microsoft are advertising their diversity programs. I was fine with all that until I was personally affected by it. I intended to apply for scholarships from Microsoft. They turned me away because according to them, they began giving them only to people who were "marginalized". That and their commercials trying to pressure young girls to join the STEM field. Again nothing wrong with women in the tech field, but now that this is turning into favoritism I have to fight harder battles to compete in the tech industry. Not only that, but now I read a study about their employment. Despite the number of people they turned away and the money they spent on these programs, thr companies STILL haven't become any more diverse, and from what it seems, their reaction lately has been to double-down and try harder. I just want an open, honest, and fair tech community. Has anyone else felt the affects of this situation?
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