Comments on: Inclusivity Is Not A Double Standard: Why Forbes is Wrong about Women in Tech

By: What Men (and Everyone, Really) Can Do To Support Gender Equity in Tech | Lauren Bacon

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:54:25 +0000

[...] out what Etsy has been up to in their successful efforts to recruit more women [...]

By: How SendGrid and PlayHaven bungled the Adria Richards situation and how they could have fixed it | Impressions Matter

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:09:39 +0000

[...] Women are understandably frustrated. And even successful and important initiatives to bring more women into developer jobs are being criticized, as Lauren Bacon rightly points out regarding the Etsy engineers project. [...]

By: Inclusivity Is Not A Double Standard: Why Forbes is Wrong about Women in Tech | Lauren Bacon | Women & Tech | Scoop.it

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 02:54:12 +0000

[...] "In my experience as an employer, no technical interview in the world beats the ability to observe coders working on projects. You learn far more by watching them work on real-world projects than you ever will watching them try to perform a test under pressure." [...]

By: Julia

Julia — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 09:53:05 +0000

Did anyone actually think what’s better for customers, collaborative style or pissing contests?

By: Julia

Julia — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 09:47:59 +0000

So, is networking and referrals (which result in men hiring more men like them) considered “lowering standards”? If not, then the competition where women are not given the same public attention to benefit from, is simply unfair.

By: cv harquail

cv harquail — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 04:29:52 +0000

Lauren, thanks for setting this out so clearly.

I myself started a post several times, but got frustrated trying to address Casserly’s argument because it was not only wrong but uninformed.

It appears that Casserly didn’t listen to Kellan’s actual presentation at in its entirety. If she had, she’d have realized that her assumptions and concerns had been anticipated and dealt with rather nicely in Kellan’s explanation and —even better– in the tactics Etsy employed.

I was also concerned because Casserly’s reporting/opeds are usually better…. Maybe not incisive analysis, but usually drawn from the actual evidence available. It made me wonder what really went wrong for her as she approached this story. Her post tells us more about the expected criticism of a corporate effort towards inclusivity that it does about what Etsy / Kellan / Hackerschool / Marc actually did. The post was just plain bad reporting, topped with a polarizing headline.

Thank goodness that the story got much more coverage that was correct and that reiterated the real learning. And thank goodness for this thorough treatment from you.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 21:34:38 +0000

Aha! That’s great to hear – and not surprising, as I’m sure there were lots of great candidates.

By: Allison

Allison — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 21:32:41 +0000

Thanks, Lauren!

Etsy did indeed hire both men and women from Hacker School.

By: Katherine Gray

Katherine Gray — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:00:53 +0000

Lauren, thank you for this. In conversations I’ve had with engineers who are actively trying to change the ratio in their own organizations, I’ve heard deeps sighs of relief that we may be able to change the way we hire. It’s not that the gladiator trials hire better engineers, it’s that they hire a certain kind of engineer. You need diversity of skills, temperaments, experience — as well as gender — to have a team that can scale and meet new challenges.
Thanks to Etsy we have data that proves that a modern version of the apprentice model can work.

By: Bookmarks for February 14th from 18:03 to 22:55 : Extenuating Circumstances

Bookmarks for February 14th from 18:03 to 22:55 : Extenuating Circumstances — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 08:00:16 +0000

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