This is what I’ve always said. I was just looking for scholarships in computer science, and I was surprised at the amount of women only scholarships I found. Society in general has less sympathy for men, and this is a pretty hard truth i’ve discovered.
At my company (FAANG), 2/3 of intern and entry level opportunities are given to women. Ironically virtually all of them come from the same few elite universities and were hardly held back by anyone, as far as I can tell.
Some of them play this game very aggressively. Once they are there, immediately organize into diversity projects and groups to push for quotas in promotions, project leads, etc. Despite these fast-track opportunities, they fully believe they are continuously being held back, at every level, and everything will be interpreted that way.
I think it will eventually break the org but I don't plan on staying.
Maybe people just try to do things they are interested in or care about and aren’t trying to scheme or gang up on others? I think if I were in such a position, I might see the process as too unegalitarian and want to change it. I wonder how one would get involved with changing such a thing.
You’re obviously able to organise in the workplace for basically whatever goals you want if you like (though in the US this organisation is only protected if more than one person is involved.)
This is a nice idea if they were trying to change the process to work better for everyone.
That's not what's happening. They just demand explicit quotas for themselves.
The whole 'diversity and inclusion/feminism makes things better for everyone' is largely a myth, it's just identity groups out for themselves in corporate America.
I’ve also seen that FANG is actively discriminating against white men. I was asked to throw out all white male and Asian male resumes for an internship programs relatively recently.
Not a lawyer, but my understanding is that it depends on the details of how and why.
A uniform decision regarding all interns across an entire company targeting specific racial charactaristics is very different from a policy that bases decisions on objective measurements done in good faith with intent to correct for some form of bias.
I also sat in a conversation with my team about not hiring the most qualified intern candidate because he was a white guy. Affirmative action is a double edged sword and it sucks that more left leaning people in places of power can't admit that.
I will second this. I was hunting for merit scholarships, as this has been a tough year and college is pricey, even with the scholarships I have. For existing college students, most of those I found were for women only, especially for CS. But I'm not eligible, because I was born a guy. fml.
Edit: btw the thing that annoys me about this is that I already won some tough and prestigious merit scholarships so I actually would have a good shot at these and probably get one if I applied to several. So it's more direct here for me.
If I remember correctly names on applications that are traditionally more likely to be given to a black person is still considered less qualified on an identical resume than a name that is traditionally given to a white person. I don’t know if sending photos with your resume is still practiced in the USA (I think it is illegal in the UK) but if that is still the case than gender and ethnicity are still very much on the average job application.
The problem with the original study was that it used names that denoted socio-economic status as much as race (ie, "Dahntay Smith" or "Shaniqua Thomas"). That's a problem, too, but I suspect a similar effect for professional job applicants can be shown using "lower" socio-economic status white names (ie, "Bobby Lee Jones" or "Tommy Ray Brown").
Regardless, I would be strongly in favor of anonymized job applications, since that would eliminate any suggestion of such bias in whichever direction.
Yes, just go to the interview wearing a wig and a skirt. Then on your first day you can wear your normal stuff, and if anyone says anything, you can just say you transitioned, and you really hope there won't be any discrimination against that.
