It's good to see stories that call attention to unique problems faced by women in technology. But you will know that progress has been made when we start seeing stories about women succeeding or failing in the industry and the news doesn't associate those triumphs or setbacks with gender.
The four stages of overcoming social stratification:
* Contributing to or ignoring the disadvantaged group's problems.
* Recognizing that the group faces undue burdens but not acting.
* Pushing for the group members to be treated differently to recognize their intrinsic value / contributions to a society, industry, etc.
* The "Aha!" moment when a majority of people realize that not only does the group bring value to an industry, but that value has nothing to do with their ethnicity, gender or other born characteristics.
After the "Aha!" moment, more news stories focus on what individuals in the group are doing rather than the fact that they are doing it despite their identities.
Did you get these from somewhere or are they just your opinion on how this does/should happen?
Pushing for the group members to be treated differently to recognize their intrinsic value / contributions to a society, industry, etc.
If you mean treated differently as in no longer doing whatever it was you were presumably doing before that contributed to this group's "undue burdens," OK. But I'm not clear that that is what you mean, based on what you said.
If you're advocating preferential treatment due to "undue burdens" (e.g. Affirmative Action), all you're doing is discriminating in the other direction and adding an undeserved burden to other groups that didn't have it before. That's not progress; it will only ever 'work' at the expense of creating or inflaming animosity based on this attempt to counter inequality with unfairness.
But you will know that progress has been made when we start seeing stories about women succeeding or failing in the industry and the news doesn't associate those triumphs or setbacks with gender.
This I absolutely agree with. Women are underrepresented in all sorts of areas, but firmly planting that badge on their foreheads takes away from their individual successes and failures. Defining someone -- anyone -- based on their sex, ethnicity, nationality, etc. for the purpose of categorization serves only to tacitly affirm discrimination.
I was sharing my opinion based on observations about how various disadvantaged groups have made social progress in the United States.
I agree with your ideas about the way "treated differently" should be defined and how preferential treatment is counterproductive. Hopefully we'll see more news stories in the future that focus on women's successes and failures but don't concentrate so much on gender.
The four stages of overcoming social stratification:
* Contributing to or ignoring the disadvantaged group's problems.
* Recognizing that the group faces undue burdens but not acting.
* Pushing for the group members to be treated differently to recognize their intrinsic value / contributions to a society, industry, etc.
* The "Aha!" moment when a majority of people realize that not only does the group bring value to an industry, but that value has nothing to do with their ethnicity, gender or other born characteristics.
After the "Aha!" moment, more news stories focus on what individuals in the group are doing rather than the fact that they are doing it despite their identities.