One of those things that never happens has happened again - tech recruitment related

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

What a huge surprise. https://www.wired.com/story/grace-hopper-celebration-career-fair-men/ Careers fair in Orlando, Florida, supposedly aimed at, and in previous years mostly attended by, women and nonbinary people, was this year overrun by obvious males, many of whom had ticked a box claiming to be female or nonbinary. Self-ID, no checks possible, no way of policing or preventing this from happening. The not-for-profit organisation which runs it says they 'cannot ban men from attending due to federal nondiscrimination protections in the US'.

It seems that men were happy to leave this event to the women in the past because it was easy for men to get jobs in tech. Now it isn't, so naturally they have muscled in.

(Event is named for the amazing Grace Hopper: American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral. )

Context from the article:
Cullen White, AnitaB.org’s chief impact officer, said in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, that some registrants had lied about their gender identity when signing up, and men were now taking up space and time with recruiters that should go to women. “All of those are limited resources to which you have no right,” White said. ...
Tech jobs, once a fairly safe and lucrative bet, have become more elusive. In 2022 and 2023, tech companies around the world laid off more than 400,000 workers, according to Layoffs.fyi, a site that tracks job losses across the industry. Tens of thousands of those cuts have come from huge employers like Meta and Amazon, and some firms have instituted hiring freezes. The layoffs have been particularly brutal for immigrant workers, who have been left scrambling for sponsorship in the US after losing work.
The controversy at the Grace Hopper Celebration shows the fallout of those job losses, as women and non-binary people still struggle to find equal footing in an industry dominated by men. Women made up just a third of those working in STEM jobs as of 2021, according to the US National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.
As job cuts bite, all prospective tech workers have become more desperate for opportunities. During the conference, videos posted to TikTok showed a sea of men waiting in line to enter the conference or speak with recruiters in the expo hall. Men and women are seen running into the expo as a staffer yells for them to slow down.

It was of their own making as soon as soon as the event was open to non binary. Especially as you be non binary and still retain original name and pronouns.

Can you imagine if the clod hopping hobnailed steel toe-capped boot was on the other foot, and transmen/transmascs were invading traditional male pursuits and career options, and displacing men from their rightful places.

First, there would be carnage. Second, within about 5 minutes flat, the rules would be changed to restore the rightful status quo.
And all would be well with the world, as Obi Wan said "there was a great disturbance in The Force...but to Hell with that, the men are back in charge!".

Cullen White ... said ... some registrants had lied about their gender identity

Unless Cullen White is a possession of a 100% reliable mindreading device, that's an incredibly transphobic thing to say.

Yes, I thought that! Dearie me.

This problem was baked into the pie from the beginning, once the definition of 'woman' was changed into some unfalsifiable inner abstract feeling of femininity, given that this is not the basis on which women are discriminated against in tech.

Nonbinary-identifying people who are female and seen as female by others will be discriminated on that basis, not because they identify as nonbinary. Nonbinary-identifying people who are male are unlikely to be discriminated against in tech to begin with, because that discrimination is sex-based.

Exactly.

well I’m shocked that men would do this - oh wait no I’m not

I’m torn between schaudenfraude at the organisers for saying women, AFAB & NB could attend and them reaping what they sewed ie there’s no way to keep men out of you do that

and rage that women are continually being fucked over in few ways

The organisers here also said men who were 'allies' could attend and then found the men did not behave like allies.

My understanding of US anti-discrimination legislation is that companies could not engage in a job fair that barred men unless the jobs were ones where the employee's sex was crucial to their job performance. There doesn't seem to be an exemption for employers to try and tackle historic disadvantage by engaging in single-sex employment recruitment processes even if there are other routes to the position that men could take. All sex discrimination in recruitment process appears to be illegal.

So while they can say X, Y, Z people are particularly welcome, they wouldn't be allowed to turn someone away because they were male, even if that man didn't pretend to be trans or an ally.

There was a similar issue for the women only co-working space in the US. They were forced to accept men too because of anti-sex discrimination laws.

Wait. We were told that no male would self ID as something they are not for their own gain. Was that... a lie?! 🤔

Your gender identity literally is the words you say or the box you tick when asked what your gender identity is. That the sum total of what it is and what it means, so you can't lie about it, it's not possible.

If you think it's possible for there to be some sort of difference between 'the words you say' and 'a real actual thing' then you're gonna have to make some attempt to define what the real actual thing is.

i suspect a lot of blokes had a good laugh about ticking the non binary box once in the conference.

Almost sounds as though it was organised doesn’t it ?

Surely not, can there really be that many men who think that way, or were they given a sly push by entitled / incel leaning men trying to wreck the event?

I saw this on twitterX. Women were saying they were literally barged out the way and hurt by men pushing past them.

This is what happens when categories are not clearly defined. Anyone can muscle in and claim it as their own, trampling over the very people it was originally intended for.

As a woman who's worked in the UK tech industry for the past 25 years this actually made me laugh, bitterly. I work for a US software company currently and, as I have been in EVERY SINGLE TECH TEAM I HAVE WORKED IN FOR 25 YEARS, I am the only woman in my team. The person that recruited me 5 years ago has been looking for another ever since. They are constantly banging on about it as they need more women to look better in diversity stats. They've been told that it 'looks bad to the market' that your global tech team is only 8% female. They're constantly asking me, do I know any more technical women that could do my job? (I don't). Why are there no women that want to do it? (Preferably young and cheap ones that can be 'moulded'). What can be done to attract more women? (Start in schools I say, do more outreach, they don't, they just continue hand wringing about it).

But now I can simply show them this! Here's the solution lads! You need some of these type of women and NB people! You dont need (or really want) actual females anyway, with their softness and lack of aggression and imposter syndromes, just get some of these male women that have been bought up with the same male priveledge that you have and can barge their way into tech recruitment and will 'bring their whole selves to work' as well (as you're also constantly banging on about) as newly minted women and make you look better to the market before you IPO. Genius!

This is more a sign of the times. People are getting desperate while work is getting scarce, housing and cost of living skyrockets and governments are cutting benefits below poverty level.

The US economy isn't doing that badly this year. Yes there's been a big correction in the tech sector because of overhiring during the boom, but this isn't some Darwinian fight to the death. It's just blokes taking the piss out of something set up to address the huge underepresentation of women in tech.

I've only got 2 comments

Cullen White ... said ... some registrants had lied about their gender identity

Is an incredibly transphobic thing to say.

I'm surprised he said it.

And the second thing- we know they were men because they acted like men- by shoving and muscling in. That is not how professional women behave.

The DM have covered this here. I think the photos say it all.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12595177/women-tech-conference-overrun-nonbinary-men.html

I feel your pain AIstolemylunch

This is my view too. If you invent a category called non-binary that anyone can lay claim to with no supporting evidence whatsoever, then of course men are going to say they're non-binary if it gives them some advantage.

I laugh bitterly at the idea that "cis men" were pretending to be non-binary. How do they know? Surely anyone who says they are non-binary is non-binary, because people never lie, right?

What I despise about the people who organised this is they were perfectly happy when it was other women who were being fucked over by gender ideology - female athletes having their prizes taken by men, female prisoners sharing prison space with rapists, terrified domestic violence victims going to shelters where men are exposing themselves in the bathroom.

But when they find themselves at the sharp end of gender ideology, they don't like it one little bit. Fools. Some people only learn the hard way.

This quote from the Mail article 😆

'It saddens me the see all those cis men attending #GHC23 and misrepresenting their gender,' added Anchal Katyalm, a software development manager.

Who is this person to tell anyone how to express their gender identity? They are who they say they are and that is that!

The comments under the Mail article are gold. Pretty much what everyone has said here so more sunlight on what this really means for women.

They seem to be annoyed that male non-binary people attended as opposed to female non-binary people.