Throughout my career, men have been my mentors, my supporters, my coaches, my advocates…
Whereas I’ve seen women be divisive, exclusionary, derogatory…
It is my honest belief that men are more supportive of women in tech than even women are.
Granted, I have indeed seen and am friends with women who are community-minded, and I know some men who cannot see past my chest, but I think it is a “mass” problem – there are simply more men around, and fewer women, and therefore the few women out there are hidden among the throng.
I think the best thing that the supportive men can do is, rather than spotlighting certain women and making them stand out (thus drawing the ire of the non-supportive men, or perhaps emasculating ones that would be on the brink) is to learn the different styles of communication – men get promoted faster and higher salaries because they tend to be more vocal and “aggressive”, women are more “passive” overall.
If more men and women learn the ways that people are communicating with them (rather than taking offense at everything) then we will have a much more balanced workplace.
Other than that, we simply need to model the behavior that we want our children to have. I grew up to be an engineer because my whole family supported my space, soldering and programming habit. If you want your daughters to be Suzy Homemaker, then by all means, make sure she is watching Flip this House and spends all her free time in HomeGoods.
Originally Posted: https://www.quora.com/What-should-men-do-and-not-do-to-support-the-growth-of-women-in-tech-1
Originally Posted On: 2015-12-10