What kinds of problems have the ones you know encountered? I realize it's anecdotal, but I'm still curious.
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What kinds of problems have the ones you know encountered? I realize it's anecdotal, but I'm still curious.
I volunteer for an organization that is meant to assist women who are in a specific tech field or are trying to get into that specific tech/computer related field. So we have hundreds of women who are working towards advancing their career or even breaking into the career. Many of them have years of experience in other fields, some are right out of college. The biggest issue is not getting call back for even entry level tech positions. Many of them find themselves having to apply for administrative positions/non-technical positions and have better luck. Outside of this, I know other women in the specific field because there really are so few of us. One women I know was hired in as an admin assistant yet she has the same degree as many of the technical males in the group, who were like her hired right out of college. Another women I know told me recently that although she spent years designing networks, installing equipment, and what not, her manager has pushed her to his administrative tasks.
One reason I've personally never volunteered to take notes during a meeting (although I do take my own personal notes) is that women often take up that task and it seems to start a slippery slope. I remember being hired into a group 10 years ago and I was the only female. One of the first things some guys in the group said to me was when I was going to bring in some cookies for them. I don't bake. And I know they meant well (as well as having a love of cookies) but things like that aren't uncommon for females in the work place. One thing I've noticed in my company (large corporation) is that women that do well have a champion in upper level management. I'm lucky in that there are people who respect me but still I'm challenged every once in a while by someone who doesn't know me but I just let my (male) manager take care of them.
And on a tangent, not technical field related, but this is an article on women doing office 'housework' that rings true.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/o...ant-on-women-doing-office-housework.html?_r=0
And Geena Davis just posted this yesterday on Facebook (Microsoft)
http://www.womenyoushouldknow.net/this-is-how-girls-do-science/
7 in 10 girls are interested in science but only 2 in 10 pursue it as a career.
http://www.womenyoushouldknow.net/this-is-how-girls-do-science/
7 in 10 girls are interested in science but only 2 in 10 pursue it as a career.
Racist much?
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Why bother anyway, the Feds will just keep increasing H1b visas so companies can hire foreigners instead of Americans.
Companies love it because they can fire at will and never pay unemployment
the very fact that you are grouping all people of lighter skin into "white people" is racist as well. do you have any idea how few people of lighter skin here in the US today can trace their roots back to slave owning plantation owners? even the ones who can, the economy in the early 1800's was completely different than the economy in the 20th and 21st centuries. the depression in the 1930's hit the reset button on many people's fortunes and wealth not just in stocks but in real estate, prices for goods, the list goes on. many people had their livelihood changed permanently. if one of these families i speak of above was able to maintain their fortune and land through the depression, chances are it didn't exist past the subsequent next couple of generations.
the fact that you are fixated on slavery just goes to show how little you know. what hurt blacks the most, was being witheld from participating in the post-WWII middle class boom (mainly housing and jobs). historically owning a home has been the most effective and most stable method of obtaining, holding, and growing wealth. blacks were discriminated against during the GI bill subsidized housing boom and were not allowed to purchase plots of land in the growing suburbs for example, outside of NYC in Levittown. the baby boomer generation had that wealth passed down to them either by living in the same house or selling the house and getting incredible amounts of money.
unfortunately it's 2015 and it's too late to make any meaningful impact without addressing the 3 legs of the stool. i mentioned the 1st leg of housing above.
2nd leg: jobs
even if you gave every black person a house (the ones who could trace their roots back to relatives who were discriminated against for housing), the next issue becomes having a good paying job so they can afford to live in the house and maintain it. most of the good paying low-skilled labor jobs which the 1950's boom created are gone - either having moved to mexico, china, and in some cases indonesia, india, and pakistan for clothing and textiles. so white people in the greatest generation were able to participate while these jobs existed, built wealth due to subsidized housing and their good paying jobs, sent their kids (baby boomers) to college using this wealth, and then passed on their wealth to their kids (baby boomers). the baby boomers in turn had wealth and did the same thing with their kids. thus whites were able to build wealth and pass that on, blacks were not able to do this and remained stagnant and as the low skill good paying jobs disappeared their wealth actually declined into and under the poverty levels.
there is hope in the form of jobs, they just aren't in low skill positions such as assembly line workers. in fact, all of the jobs in the outlooks presented by the government and other consulting agencies all point to having some level of skill even if its a trades job. there will and is starting to already be huge demand for construction workers as our infrastructure system is starting to fail all across the country (not just bridges, but roads, sewer lines, water pipes, natural gas lines, overhead electrical lines, the list goes on). some of these jobs require little skill, some require more skill. other fields that will have growth opportunities are in health care - specifically nursing, home health care, and in higher skilled positions such as doctors.
if the government wanted to make a meaningful impact, they would start to lay the foundation for infrastructure improvement projects and training for those projects. this doesn't have to be at just the federal level, but it can be partially funded by the feds.
3rd leg: education/training
perhaps i should have done this in order since in many cases you need education/training before the job, however there is a reason why i did this. it was to mimic the advancement that whites had in the 1940's and 1950's where many did not have a college education, many were not smart enough to go to college, yet were still able to build wealth and send their kids to college. providing jobs in the form of infrastructure improvement projects, health care jobs, and the other fields mentioned on the BLS website, allows people to start building a foundation and then go from there. it preserves the mentality in this country that if you work hard you will succeed, while avoiding the label of "handouts".
there should be assistance in the form of basic training whether it's in trades or health care so that these jobs can be performed well. i'm not going to go into the specifics of how this could be done, as that's not my place
1st leg: housing
2nd leg: jobs
3rd leg: education/training
take them in whatever order you prefer, not necessarily in any order really. but they make up the stool that is required to raise up anyone in a society so that everyone can sit at the same table.
for the record: i would be considered "white", my family came here as immigrants post-Civic War. did not own plantations, did not own slaves, did not own stores and/or shops in the South that discriminated against blacks. they lived in tiny apartments in NYC and Philadelphia and were extremely poor - sometimes the entire family slept in the same room. not sure if they measured poverty back then but if they did they were likely at or near that line. it was like this up until WWII and due to their skin color they were able to reap the benefits of the post-WWII boom which played a huge role into where i am today being college educated in a high tech field, own multiple real estate properties, and have a decently sized 401K for someone my age
if anyone watches House of Cards - President Frank Underwood's "America Works" program touches on 2 of the above legs of the stool by cutting entitlements to people who don't need them (after all, social security was supposed to be a safety net and not meant to be paying out to retirees who actually have more than enough in retirement savings to last them the rest of their lives). of course that was just a TV show, but in many cities across America there needs to be a state of emergency called as in the show to implement the change that's needed (baltimore, newark, chicago, DC like in the movie, philadelphia, camden, detroit, the list goes on). otherwise the bureaucratic and political bickering means we will never get anything done. it all comes down to one question - "do you want to pay for it now, or do you want to pay for it later". that's up to all of us
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This all does go to show that most white Americans don't understand much about diversity or affirmative action.
Some posters here do give me hope.
Some posters here do give me hope.
This might have been brought up before, but college scholarships are too ****ing late. You need to hit grade schools with a technology hammer and improve the communities around the area before you will see a meaningful increase in participation from black students. If students cant afford a computer at home, the chances of you keeping up with everyone else is slim to none.
same goes on the women front, if you start too late they aren't going to suddenly become passionate about the field because you throw a scholarship at them.
same goes on the women front, if you start too late they aren't going to suddenly become passionate about the field because you throw a scholarship at them.