‘Wall Street Journal’ blogger advises women in tech to hide their gender:
Straight from the bureau of bad ideas, the Wall Street Journal has published a blog post advising women to avoid workplace sexism by keeping their gender a secret.
WSJ “leadership expert” John Greathouse wrote the post, titled, “Why Women in Tech Might Consider Just Using Their Initials Online.” He suggests that women can combat sexist hiring practises by creating a “gender-neutral persona” online, rendering their femininity invisible and therefore less damaging to their career prospects.
Source: dailydot.com
Anne Marie Slaughter: The National Security Issue No One Is Talking About
Put another way, if we want women, men, young people, older people, people of color or any other demographic to use a cybersecurity product, they should be part of designing that product. That’s a basic tenet of Silicon Valley, enshrined as a key principle of user experience design, the backbone of technology product development. For the most part, this mindset has yet to penetrate the cybersecurity field.
You need only look as far as Siri and other digital assistants to see the pernicious effects that homogeneity can have on technology: A recent study shows that Siri, Cortana and the rest of the gang can easily help users after they report they’ve had a heart attack—but are flummoxed after hearing “I’ve been raped.” On the flip side, when women are at the designing and engineering table, they are likely to know that heart attack symptoms in women are often very different from those in men and provide a different response when a female voice asks Siri what a heart attack feels like.
Nearly half the 1,000 respondents in the research by the digital security firm Norton had experienced some form of abuse or harassment online. Among women under 30, the incidence was 76%.
Harassment ranged from unwanted contact, trolling, and cyberbullying to sexual harassment and threats of rape and death. Women under 30 were overrepresented in every category.
One in seven – and one in four women aged under 30 – had received general threats of physical violence. Almost one in ten women under 30 had experienced revenge porn and/or “sextortion”.
An A-Z of Women Pushing Boundaries in Science and Tech
Happy International Women’s Day! 👭