For this blog
post I found an interesting article about the tech industry. The focus of the
article asks the question “ Why are women leaving the tech industry in
droves?” Leaving the industry as you read on does not appear to be
the only issue. With companies like Apple only seeing a 20 percent employment
rate of women its shocking to think women even hold powerful roles in this
industry. There is an interesting video along with the article and it focuses
on the idea of hostile work environments for women. Women are battling gender
biases in tech and finances areas especially according to the video. This most
definitely made me think of the Feminist Approach and how the article talks
about the men needing to make the change in order for women to feel more
comfortable. The four types of gender biases experienced by women is 1. When
women feel they need to prove themselves 2 the tight rope, which is the idea
where women need to walk a fine line between being masculine, and be seen as
equal but then expected to be feminine 3 is the gender biased for women who are
mothers and 4 “the tug of war” the competition between women becomes increased
because not a lot of women can make it through the ranks so they branch out
against other women.
This sort of environment is not
conducive for career women and tech organizations to take on the Feminist Approach. If there is no change there could be a further resistance from men and women but also emancipation of the women like the
leaders mentioned above. But is it really still coming to this? There cannot be
these existing atmospheres, its 2015 the gender biased idea is so beyond our
capabilities and the tech company of all industries should be about being “up
to date” on everything. It is the job of management to install a zero gender
biased tolerance policy because women with masters degrees working in the
industry for over a decade should not feel pushed out by men who cannot let go
of their own egos. I cannot stress enough how this makes the men who do not
share this view look bad and that’s just as much of a problem.
Apple isn’t
the only one with low female rates in the workplace. It was incredibly
surprising to se that the Pinterest team only has 21 percent of women working
on their team. Pinterest screams women to me, for as many women who use it you
would think it would be predominately women. To attempt to fix this the Pinterest team it creates a more
diverse team. Facebook also is looking to get more women involved by creating
workshops for women to gain leadership skills. This sort of activism is the only way to break down
the patriarchal system. Not simply the women but the men as well. Let the men
know they are affected by this system and the word feminist isn’t only for
women. I had just had a conversation with a man in my interpersonal
communication class and he told me he didn’t believe that gender biases in the
workforce were an actual thing anymore, so ill be sending him this article and
saying the truth is that it is well hidden.
