Comments on: Male Perspectives on Women, Geekery, and Mastery http://www.geekstudies.org/2007/09/male-perspectives-on-women-geekery-and-mastery Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:01:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Geek Studies » Blog Archive » How People Explain Female Geeks http://www.geekstudies.org/2007/09/male-perspectives-on-women-geekery-and-mastery/comment-page-1#comment-1249 Geek Studies » Blog Archive » How People Explain Female Geeks Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:07:18 +0000 http://www.geekstudies.org/2007/09/male-perspectives-on-women-geekery-and-mastery#comment-1249 [...] up being the objects of disproportionate attention or exclusion. Examples of this are unfortunately quite easy to find, but I’ll offer a new one now that just came to my [...] [...] up being the objects of disproportionate attention or exclusion. Examples of this are unfortunately quite easy to find, but I’ll offer a new one now that just came to my [...]

]]> By: Jason Tocci http://www.geekstudies.org/2007/09/male-perspectives-on-women-geekery-and-mastery/comment-page-1#comment-239 Jason Tocci Wed, 26 Sep 2007 01:12:14 +0000 http://www.geekstudies.org/2007/09/male-perspectives-on-women-geekery-and-mastery#comment-239 Hm, that's interesting. I'll check it out. It does seem kind of commonsensical to me that a more diverse professional community would be better at tackling a diverse array of problems in useful and novel ways, but it's interesting to see how we might offer evidence to that effect. As for the whole "harmony" thing ... I guess anybody credited with inventing the web probably knows what he's talking about better than I do here. I just always thought of diversity as provoking useful tensions rather than encouraging harmony (which looks like "more of the same" under a negative light). Hm, that’s interesting. I’ll check it out. It does seem kind of commonsensical to me that a more diverse professional community would be better at tackling a diverse array of problems in useful and novel ways, but it’s interesting to see how we might offer evidence to that effect.

As for the whole “harmony” thing … I guess anybody credited with inventing the web probably knows what he’s talking about better than I do here. I just always thought of diversity as provoking useful tensions rather than encouraging harmony (which looks like “more of the same” under a negative light).

]]> By: Fashion » Male Perspectives on Women, Geekery, and Mastery http://www.geekstudies.org/2007/09/male-perspectives-on-women-geekery-and-mastery/comment-page-1#comment-236 Fashion » Male Perspectives on Women, Geekery, and Mastery Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:37:54 +0000 http://www.geekstudies.org/2007/09/male-perspectives-on-women-geekery-and-mastery#comment-236 [...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptBut those are the same obstacles us pasty geeks (male and female) with no fashion sense run into when we try to get jobs that favour the beautiful people. How often do you see a pasty geek hosting a restaurant? Anchoring a news team? … [...] [...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptBut those are the same obstacles us pasty geeks (male and female) with no fashion sense run into when we try to get jobs that favour the beautiful people. How often do you see a pasty geek hosting a restaurant? Anchoring a news team? … [...]

]]> By: Sarah Elkins http://www.geekstudies.org/2007/09/male-perspectives-on-women-geekery-and-mastery/comment-page-1#comment-233 Sarah Elkins Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:39:18 +0000 http://www.geekstudies.org/2007/09/male-perspectives-on-women-geekery-and-mastery#comment-233 "I am somewhat confused about how greater industry and workplace diversity—a valuable end in itself, I think—would “lead to greater harmony of systems design,” but that’s neither here nor there." You might be interested in the recent study by the National Center for Women and Information Technology. It surveyed patent citation rates and found that (summary quote from Forbes): "mixed-gender teams’ technology patents received up to 42% more citations than their single-gender counterparts." Forbes article link: http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/09/13/women-patents-study-tech-science-cz_cm_0913techwomen.html That addresses usefulness rather than harmony, so it's not a direct response to your comment, but I think it's pretty interesting. It's the most direct evidence I've seen for the value of gender diversity in engineering. “I am somewhat confused about how greater industry and workplace diversity—a valuable end in itself, I think—would “lead to greater harmony of systems design,” but that’s neither here nor there.”

You might be interested in the recent study by the National Center for Women and Information Technology. It surveyed patent citation rates and found that (summary quote from Forbes): “mixed-gender teams’ technology patents received up to 42% more citations than their single-gender counterparts.” Forbes article link: http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/09/13/women-patents-study-tech-science-cz_cm_0913techwomen.html

That addresses usefulness rather than harmony, so it’s not a direct response to your comment, but I think it’s pretty interesting. It’s the most direct evidence I’ve seen for the value of gender diversity in engineering.

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