The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

It’s a Man’s (Virtual) World, Baby

Posted on | July 30, 2014 | 79 Comments

Before starting this discussion, permit me to point out that no entrepreneur in conservative online media has been more successful than Michelle Malkin, who launched two digital start-ups — HotAir.com and Twitchy.com — and subsequently sold these Internet properties to Salem Communications for sums rumored to be seven figures each.

The knowledge that this woman’s phenomenal intelligence and hard work have been handsomely rewarded in the marketplace of ideas casts an important light on Issie Lapowsky’s Wired.com article:

Shortly after Kathryn Tucker started RedRover, an app that showcases local events for kids, she pitched the idea to an angel investor at a New York tech event. But it didn’t go over well. When she finished her pitch, the investor said he didn’t invest in women.
When she asked why, he told her. “I don’t like the way women think,” he said. “They haven’t mastered linear thinking.” To prove his point, he explained that his wife could never prioritize her to-do lists properly. And then, as if he was trying to compliment her, he told Tucker she was different. “You’re more male,” he said.
Tucker didn’t need to hear any more. “I said, ‘Thanks very much,’ walked out, and never spoke to him again,” she recalled earlier this year, as part of a panel discussion on “fundraising while female” at the annual Internet Week conference in New York.
It was one of many stories shared during a panel that painted the tech world as a place that—for all its efforts to push into the future with apps and gadgets and online services—is still very much stuck in the past when it comes to attitudes involving gender. Rachel Sklar, founder of Change the Ratio, an advocacy group for women in tech, shared the story of an investor who said he doesn’t invest in women he doesn’t find attractive. Another gave women in the audience a tip for pitching VCs: “Wear a wedding ring.”
As unsettling as they were, these stories only begin to describe the obstacles facing women in the tech world. We’ve all seen the numbers. According to a recent report . . . only 13 percent of venture-backed companies had at least one female co-founder. In the software sector, women-run businesses accounted for just 10 percent of all venture capital deals. . . .

You can read the whole tendentious thing, which is a typical example of how feminists argue: Cite some statistics, tell a few anecdotes and — voila! — they’re victims oppressed by the patriarchy. To dispute their claims just proves you’re a sexist, and so skeptics are either smeared or intimidated into silence.

The core of the feminist argument here is a simple fallacy, the belief that every kind of “inequality” must be the result of unfair discrimination, so that merely by showing a statistical disparity, they believe they have exposed “social injustice.”

This is an absurd species of bad logic. It depends upon the credulous belief, the unstated premise of the syllogism, that male sexism is such a powerful force as to triumph over the profit motive of investors in a market economy. Such feminist claims furthermore depend on another unstated premise, namely that perfect parity — where participation in every field of human endeavor, at every level, is exactly proportional to the general population — is the natural, normal or most desirable state of affairs. Only if one accepts that dubious egalitarian premise is there any reason to believe that the high-tech sector is plagued by wrongful sexist discrimination.

The different proportions of employees in various career fields — whether we analyze the workforce by sex, race, age, nationality, religion or any other factor — may have any number of explanations without prompting a legitimate claim of unfair discrimination. Even where one can cite anecdotal evidence of prejudiced attitudes (e.g., sexist remarks made by investors or executives), it does not follow from such examples that this prejudice is the cause of the statistical disparity. In fact, one can plausibly argue that causality runs in the other direction, and that sexist attitudes in male-dominated career fields are simply a reflection of the fact that most people in these fields are male, so that the normative expectations are expressions of commonplace male attitudes.

We might expect that women seeking employment as construction workers or long-haul truck drivers would face a certain amount of prejudice in those overwhelmingly male trades; it does not follow from this fact, however, that prejudice against women explains why there are so few women carpenters, bricklayers or tractor-trailer drivers. There is a chicken-and-egg question of causality involved, and if truck drivers are (a) mostly male and (b) given to “sexist” beliefs, we cannot presume that (b) is the cause of (a), nor can we rule out the plausible alternative (c) that most women simply aren’t interested in driving big rigs.

It is impossible to overlook the fact that these types of “diversity” claims — where a perceived shortage of women or ethnic minorities in some field is treated as a problem of unfairness or discrimination — are only ever made in relation to career fields that are relatively lucrative or perceived as prestigious. No one has ever cited the percentage of women (or Chinese or Latinos, whatever) employed as short-order cooks or retail clerks as evidence that there is discrimination in these low-paying, low-prestige jobs. Nor is the disproportionately large number of African-American players in the NBA claimed to result from anti-white prejudice, because success in the world of professional sports ultimately comes down to who can best play the game. Where we find claims of discriminatory unfairness, or laments about the lack of “diversity,” are in high-paying office jobs generally requiring a college education and where the superiority of merit between different employees is difficult for any outsider to judge.

Notice that the people who are most involved in pushing these discrimination/diversity claims are usually employed in exactly these kinds of office jobs. They are lawyers, journalists, academics or non-profit activists — college-educated people employed in fields where it is hard to say that judgments of merit are entirely objective. If a certain lawyer is appointed to be a federal judge, for example, the fact that this attorney is qualified, having a diploma from a good law school and having been successful in private practice, does not mean that he is the most qualified candidate for the job. There may be many thousands of lawyers in America whose qualifications are at least as good as the lawyer appointed to the federal bench, but (a) many of those lawyers have no interest in serving as a judge, and (b) even if they were interested, most don’t have the political connections needed to attract the attention and support of those who decide which candidates the president will nominate for a vacancy in the federal judiciary.

By the same token, whatever the criteria by which one judges a journalist, a professor or a non-profit activist, it is very difficult to say that questions of absolute merit in those fields can be determined by strictly objective standards. A reporter who wins the Pulitzer Prize, for example, can usually be presumed to be one of the best practitioners of the trade. However, Janet Cooke of the Washington Post won the Pulitzer for a series of articles later revealed to have been fabricated, and Pulitzer winner Rick Bragg resigned from the New York Times after being accused of ethical lapses. One  could examine the other occupations of diversity-mongers — in academia, for example — and produce similar instances that indicate the absence of an absolute-merit standard.

We return, then, to the alleged discrimination against women in the computer technology field, as described by Issie Lapowsky. Here we need not speculate endlessly about the standard of merit. Ultimately, the market determines whether a technology company succeeds or fails. High-tech start-ups are notoriously risky investments; for every Google or Facebook that turns into a gigantic money-maker for investors, there are countless ventures that implode in a matter of months or which, like Salon.com, seem to stagger along in zombie fashion because “investors” have a non-monetary motive to keep losing money year after year.

Investors and executives in high-tech firms have every possible incentive to attract the very best personnel available. If qualified females are being discriminated against, so that less-qualified males are employed or promoted, then companies could gain a competitive advantage by hiring and promoting women who are victims of discrimination at other firms. Therefore, if the lack of “diversity” in high-tech is the result of unfair sexist prejudice, some companies must be cutting off their noses to spite their faces, forgoing opportunities for profit in the process. Ultimately, then, these sexist firms would lose market share in comparison to companies whose employment practices are based on standards of absolute merit, and firms that hire and promote qualified females would gain economic benefit from their wise policies.

The fact that this has not happened — that the most successful firms in this highly competitive field are founded and managed by men — would logically seem to be adequate evidence that  unfair discrimination is not the norm in high-tech. But if feminists cared about logic and evidence, they wouldn’t be feminists, would they?





 

 

Comments

79 Responses to “It’s a Man’s (Virtual) World, Baby”

  1. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    July 30th, 2014 @ 12:17 pm

    Michelle Malkin is awesome.

  2. Dana
    July 30th, 2014 @ 12:26 pm

    Our honored host wrote:

    We might expect that women seeking employment as construction workers or long-haul truck drivers would face a certain amount of prejudice in those overwhelmingly male trades; it does not follow from this fact, however, that prejudice against women explains why there are so few women carpenters, bricklayers or tractor-trailer drivers.

    What explains it is that so few women try to enter those fields.

    I’ve been in the ready-mixed concrete industry for 28 years, and I’ve talked to plenty of women who were lamenting that the only jobs were as convenience store clerks and McDonald’s, and I’ve always said, “Get a CDL and drive a dump truck.” Those are local jobs, they pay a lot better than minimum wage, and they really don’t take a lot of additional skill. (A concrete mixer driver needs a lot more skill, both in driving the truck and understanding concrete.) Very few women looked at that advice seriously.

  3. M. Thompson
    July 30th, 2014 @ 12:26 pm

    Where’s a Vulcan when you need one?

  4. M. Thompson
    July 30th, 2014 @ 12:28 pm

    I am unable to give more than one upvote to this comment. It deserves more.

  5. Dana
    July 30th, 2014 @ 12:28 pm

    On Vulcan?

  6. robertstacymccain
    July 30th, 2014 @ 12:29 pm

    Given my general prejudice against women drivers — which i freely confess, and insist is based on direct experience and observation — I just had a nightmare vision of entire fleets of concrete mixer trucks driven by females.

    Pray to God it never happens.

  7. Dana
    July 30th, 2014 @ 12:31 pm

    A couple of the best mixer drivers I ever had were women, but, in general, they were pretty much in the average skill level with the men.

  8. Dana
    July 30th, 2014 @ 12:34 pm

    And I’ve seen some absolutely rotten male mixer drivers, too!

  9. texlovera
    July 30th, 2014 @ 12:51 pm

    MAKE ME A HIGH-TECH SAMMICH!!!

  10. Dana
    July 30th, 2014 @ 12:52 pm

    True story: a woman named Kathy, who was a mixer driver, came up to me on a Thursday when I was running a plant, and said that she wanted to get off the truck and into production. Her “job interview” was very short:

    Me: Can you run a loader?
    She: Yes.
    Me: There it is; show me.

    And she spent the rest of the day on the loader, showing me. On Friday, she was back driving her truck.

    On Saturday, the regular loader operator broke his foot at home.

    On Monday, Preston, the regular plant manager, and I were running the plant and loader. We had a night pour, and Preston came in to do that, but that meant he’d not be available to start at 0600 for a 600 yd³ pour. I came in to run the plant, and Kathy was on the loader. I never ran out of material until Preston came in at noon and relieved her on the loader!

    I’ll give anybody a chance, but I hold everybody to the same standard: can they do the job, or not?

  11. Mike G.
    July 30th, 2014 @ 12:58 pm

    I helped out.

    When we do our Christmas business, we have a lesbian truck driver who drives a big rig…her name is Bob. She’s one of the better drivers we get. And my daughter who helps us out every year is also a lesbian. She outworks all of the white males and half of the Mexicans we hire.

  12. robertstacymccain
    July 30th, 2014 @ 1:07 pm

    Absolutely. i think most people in business are the same way. As I keep saying — in reference to people who seem disposed to constantly bitch and complain about their jobs — JUST DO THE WORK.

    Anybody could look around them in the workplace and find examples of unfairness of one sort of another. There are some people who seem to think they always know better how to do other people’s jobs. If you pay too much attention to that kind of office-politics bullshit, however, it will destroy your soul. So just shut up and DO THE WORK, or else find someplace else to work.

  13. Phil_McG
    July 30th, 2014 @ 1:11 pm

    Here’s what’s really going on: feminists, diversity shakedown artists, and discrimination hustlers have watched the (mainly) white and asian nerds build the web up into a world-conquering business behemoth.

    Now they want to wet their beaks.

    But how to do that? Coding is hard. Coming up with new ideas to make money is hard. Crying about how “boy’s clubs” and demanding the boys invent special well-paid sinecures and quotas for your benefit is easier.

    They are like moths attracted to money.

  14. RKae
    July 30th, 2014 @ 1:13 pm

    Nope. The planet’s been destroyed in the new time-line.

  15. robertstacymccain
    July 30th, 2014 @ 1:14 pm

    Right. I’m not saying there are no good female drivers, nor am I saying that all men are good drivers. What I’m saying is that, in considering the two groups on average, men are better drivers.

    In particular, I’ve noticed, women generally have a problem locating the accelerator on their car in situations (merging onto a freeway) where a quick burst of speed is necessary to avoid a collision. In general, women tend to err by being too cautious in their driving, or by being indecisive in situations where a quick reflex decision is necessary. As I say, these are general observations, and should not be interpreted as prejudicial to any particular woman (my mother was an excellent driver, and taught me many important tips), although I know that the Feminist Outrage Brigades will take offense.

  16. RKae
    July 30th, 2014 @ 1:15 pm

    Women don’t like to work outside of carpeted, climate-controlled environs.

    Hmmm… It appears that I’ve stated that as an iron-clad fact without any data to back it up. Tell ya what: Anyone want to counter it, go ahead. Then walk around your city and look. Who’s working outside?

  17. robertstacymccain
    July 30th, 2014 @ 1:16 pm

    Well and truly stated.

  18. RKae
    July 30th, 2014 @ 1:18 pm

    He won’t invest in women?

    Damn. My wife keeps this house organized! And I mean ORGANIZED! She’s Lucy Van Pelt cranked up to 11.

    As a playwright, I always prefer working for female directors. They are always more organized.

    Personally, I wouldn’t invest in men. Their brains come to a screeching halt at the age of 14.

  19. leelu
    July 30th, 2014 @ 1:37 pm

    Your statement about the market forces working against sexism are true for any “-ism”.

    And, fwiw, two of the best (and one of the craziest) drivers I know we women. Felt absolutely safe rocketing along at 100mph on a straightaway between Cody, Worming and Billings, Montana. ‘;-)

  20. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    July 30th, 2014 @ 1:44 pm

    Right. You are such a H8-E H8-er, Deerslayer!

  21. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    July 30th, 2014 @ 1:45 pm

    Women also try to avoid colliding with deer when driving, or so I have been told!

  22. Dana
    July 30th, 2014 @ 1:52 pm

    One of my pet sayings at work — and I have a bunch of them! — is “I love my job!” used so frequently that one of the drivers had a t-shirt made for me with “I love my job” on the back.

    Now, what is actually true is that I love my paycheck, and I’m fully aware that there are a lot of guys out there who’d love to have good jobs today, but don’t. I appreciate my job.

  23. Dana
    July 30th, 2014 @ 1:53 pm

    But not yet!

  24. Quartermaster
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:00 pm

    Only 100? C’mon now. That ain’t even close to crazy.

  25. Quartermaster
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:01 pm

    They normally get ’em going again sometime between 45 and 50.

  26. Quartermaster
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:07 pm

    There are very few Women among Land Surveyors and most of those do almost exclusively office work. Same among Civil Engineers.

    Those are my professions and my observations are far being anecdotal. There were only 4 women in the CE department at Tennessee Tech when I was there. There was one woman among the Physics Majors (8 in number) at the same time. Accounting and Biz Management was overrun with women and sociology, and education were almost entirely women.

    Women might get the vapors when someone points out that Women don’t go into math and (real) science, but it is the way it is. I didn’t feel any sympathy for Larry Summers, but the women who went ballistic were simply over educated fools (they were feministas, so I’m being redundant).

  27. Quartermaster
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:10 pm

    I may regard it unfair that I’m not the boss, but there are others who thank their lucky stars I’m not the boss. YMMV.

    OTOH, I used to be the boss, and I’m quite glad that I am not the boss now.

  28. Mike G.
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:12 pm

    Not my wife…she would stomp on the accelerator.

  29. RS
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:12 pm

    It is fascinating that Feminists view only those traits at which men excel in greater numbers as problematic. Traits which are strengths for females are ignored or deemed “natural.” For example, the fact that I–a fiftyish white male–decided to leave my male internist because of his shitty interpersonal skills and now see a female doctor who is a) sharp as a tack and b) much, much better at dealing with patients as people would not be seen as an issue of discrimination. And it’s certainly not going to be used as an anecdote at some confab dedicated to complaining that males are getting the shaft in internal medicine.

    (BTW, my doctor’s black, too.)

  30. Zohydro
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:12 pm

    The Good Lord gave men a penis and a brain—but only enough blood to use one of these at a time…

  31. Quartermaster
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:14 pm

    I fully expect a lot of those female fighter drivers to die in combat if we ever have a real enemy again. Not all, but most.
    It’s true that Stalin had some women airplane drivers during the great Patriotic War. But how many women died to produce those very few that didn’t is the question.
    Something where deliberation and care was required, like sniper, was something that women excelled in. It’s stupid to ignore differences among the sexes (note I did not say “gender”) and quite wise to take advantage of the strengths that each have. It’s stupid to get people killed just so you can have “social justice.” It’s especially unfair to those who are victims of insuring social justice – which, generally, are the same people you are supposedly helping.

  32. JeffS
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:28 pm

    I’ve similar experiences, QM. And with the engineering profession as a whole, not just civil engineers.

    OTOH, those women who DO leave the comfortable office are gangbusters.

  33. JeffS
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:30 pm

    Yeah, especially on THAT road! That rig must have been a real wreck.

  34. Matt_SE
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:45 pm

    True story:

    I was in Silicon Valley last year, pitching a new startup idea at a meeting of venture capitalists. I approached a group of women investors, including Sheryl Sandberg (!), and started outlining my idea.

    They gathered around me in an “all-inclusive circle,” pantsed me, pointed at my penis and started laughing.
    (Needless to say, I didn’t get the funding)

    And if you question my story, you ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM, H8ers!

  35. Quartermaster
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:45 pm

    She doesn’t whine about conditions. She just goes and gets things done.

  36. Mika Brzezinski: ‘Keep it Right Here on Morning Jew’ | Regular Right Guy
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:46 pm

    […] It’s a Man’s (Virtual) World, Baby […]

  37. Matt_SE
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:50 pm

    Didn’t Star Wars happen a long time ago?
    [I know…I’m trolling]

  38. Dana
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:52 pm

    Part of the problem with that observation is that so many women work as clerks at Seven/Eleven, which is (supposedly) climate controlled, but they still have to take the garbage out to the dumpster, regardless of the weather, still have to mop the floors and go in the freezer, and all sorts of other things that attend to minimum wage jobs.

  39. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    July 30th, 2014 @ 2:59 pm

    You need the proper equipment on your vehicle to do that safely and efficiently! Here is an example from Australia.

    http://cironesforaustralia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/roo-bar.jpg

  40. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    July 30th, 2014 @ 3:01 pm

    http://www.redditian.com/r/WTF/29pxdr

    What happens to a deer getting hit at 90 mph

  41. Loren
    July 30th, 2014 @ 3:29 pm

    A lot of male airplane drivers died to produce the few aces as well. Just saying.

  42. Quartermaster
    July 30th, 2014 @ 3:54 pm

    C’mon, admit it. She’s cuter than the male doc.

  43. Quartermaster
    July 30th, 2014 @ 3:58 pm

    Yes they did. And, proportionally, the death rates among the women were nothing short of interstellar. There are women with the mental agility to do that kind work, but there are very few of them. There are a much larger number of men, but even the men were slaughtered. It was really bad on the Russian Front.

  44. Quartermaster
    July 30th, 2014 @ 3:59 pm

    I gave mine on your behalf.
    Actually, I did it for myself too. Mainly.

  45. Quartermaster
    July 30th, 2014 @ 4:01 pm

    A friend bought an old 4 wheel drive ambulance from the Navy years ago. He was traveling to go caving in Mexico and was doing about 70 and hit a cow on the road at night. That gif showed what happened to the cow.

  46. So what does happen to a deer when you hit it doing 90 mph? | Batshit Crazy News
    July 30th, 2014 @ 4:32 pm

    […] McCain has a bias against women drivers, and I could not help but tease him about his own KIA deer killing experience.  But I found this gem and it is worth doing its own […]

  47. Kirby McCain
    July 30th, 2014 @ 5:05 pm

    I know a lady hairstylist who’s been in business for decades. She’s attractive and successful. When she’s cutting my hair her boobs are always rubbing against my shoulders and I tip her well. What I want to know, if I enjoy this does that make me a misogynist?

  48. Mike G.
    July 30th, 2014 @ 5:17 pm

    From Australia, eh? That looks like a right nice Kangaroo trap.

  49. Mike G.
    July 30th, 2014 @ 5:19 pm

    Don’t know what happened to the deer my Grand Daughter hit last June, but it screwed up the front of her SUV pretty bad. She was doing about 50 when she hit it.

  50. Matt_SE
    July 30th, 2014 @ 5:20 pm

    No, but it makes her a successful hairstylist.