Angry/depressed in the wake of the Google manifesto

[AssassinatedBeauty]

I work in IT and have done in various capacities since starting work after Uni. In the aftermath of the Google manifesto and the reactions to it, I'm finding myself increasingly depressed, angry and upset.

I find it intolerable that there are apparently so many men (and women I guess) who would look at me as a woman and decide they can tell things about my aptitude, abilities and personality based on that one fact. I also find it intolerable that apparently so many men (and women again, I suppose) look at the lack of women generally and in senior positions, and accept that as wholly natural and based on innate biological differences in the way men and women think. It seems there is an underlying acceptance of this as a natural fact, and that measures to encourage women into IT and other STEM fields are just PC window dressing, and ultimately pointless.

It makes it obvious to me that this is a world run by men, for men, and women will always have to be fighting for scraps as a result. It's just depressing me so much.

Does anyone else feel similarly? Does anyone have any ideas how I can get out of this fug and move on? Am I just being daft?

I haven't heard of the Google manifesto, not a fan of Google anyway (they want to steal my data ...) so no idea what that was about, but I do get the general depression caused by patriarchy.

Reading radfem blogs usually cheers me up.

Try this one: blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/

Someone just saying how it is without sugarcoating feels very liberating, even though that alone does not liberate us.

Existing thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/2999801-women-are-underrepresented-in-tech-because-of-inherent-psychological-differences

You aren't alone or being daft. I deal with it (also in tech/v male dominated environment) by finding my allies and being bloody minded. But things seem to have got worse recently. The fact this is even seen as a valid thing to discuss at work is the most depressing thing. Imagine if someone in a big corporate wrote a manifesto about why black people weren't suited for the work. Yet I've heard a few people say this guy shouldn't have been sacked.
Anyhow the other thread is worth reading for a magnificent rant from pricklyball

I was on that other thread, but getting a bit depressed by the inevitable arrival of men coming along to point out how emotional, irrational and illogical we women were being in our responses to it. That everything that the Google guy wrote is totally reasonable and worth discussing, and women's reactions to it aren't important or relevant at all.

I can't work out why it's bothering me so much! Maybe it's because I've just returned from maternity leave and I'm thinking a lot about my career, now and in the past.

You arent being daft, its a temporary state and it will pass the next time you see some piece of utter fuckwittery that makes you steaming mad.

I find it intolerable that there are apparently so many men (and women I guess) who would look at me as a woman and decide they can tell things about my aptitude, abilities and personality based on that one fact.

I feel the same. Though not specifically on this issue, I find this when I see the attitudes towards teenage girls which are so commonplace (symptomatic of misogyny in society in general). That there are so many people who would look at me and assume so many things and ascribe so many traits merely due to my being female. Then more widely, that they'd assume things about my ambitions/aims because of it as well as about my personality in general.

I can imagine how enraged this Google piece made you. It's so sexist, reductive and also dismissive of the many women who are thriving in the industry, as well as those who have in the past, all despite attitudes such as these being commonplace towards them.