Worker Bees Blog

A couple of months ago, prompted by Mary Hodder, I blogged about the NY Times and its odd placement of a technology story about girl geeks in the Fashion & Style section.

Well, they're at it again. And this time it is even more egregious. Check the article Diversity Isn’t Rocket Science, Is It? In the Fashion & Style section.

The article is about some hard facts about women in technology, the stats on how they fare from college onwards, and some of the factors that might explain their declining numbers. Yes, "work-life balance" is a part of what is discussed, and yes, most discussions about work-life balance are immediately marginalized (because I guess we all know men don't actually care about that stuff, is that the implication?) But a lot of the discussion is about honest-to-God sexism that still remains in tech culture.

Isn't that a Technology issue? And a Business issue. Or a Political issue? Just about anything other than a fashion and style issue, if you ask me.

Hat tip: Stacy Higginbotham from GigaOm, who says:

I actually think the “macho culture” inherent to these fields has less to do with the lack of women sticking around than the persistent assumption that’s behind the NYTimes confining the article to the Style pages. The assumption is that work-life balance is a female issue.

Yup, there's that "liberal" NY Times being a part of the macho culture itself. I only wonder if the female reporter is OK with where they placed her article. Because the article is actually pretty good, but a lot of the people who might find it useful, enlightening, interesting or compelling might not find it buried amongst stories about Bret Michaels and Spiced Bubble Tea.

Grr.

Labels: Gender diversity, GigaOM, mary hodder, Ny Times