https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YssLV2j9e2orpmtFTHElORuEOIHw31qtlNxnFRRT-3E/edit?usp=sharing
Several women of my acquaintance have reported experiencing greater sexism in tech than they experienced in other fields. I believe that women in tech do experience sexism at greater rates than women in more gender balanced fields. However, I don't believe that men in tech are necessarily more sexist than men in other fields. Though techie men may well be more sexist, women in tech might experience more sexism than in other fields _even if men in tech are no more sexist than men in any other field_. How can this be?
Assume for the sake of argument that:
* a typical Computer Science (CS) class has 100 students
* a typical CS class has an 4:1 gender ratio (80 men and 20 women).
* about 5% of men are sexist.
* sexist men make one sexist remark per day.
* each student will, on average, interact with 20 fellow students/day, drawn at random from the pool of students in the class.
Under these assumptions, a woman in a CS class has a 56% percent chance of encountering a sexist remark on a given day.
By contrast, a woman in a gender balanced class (50 men, 50 women), has a 40% change of experiencing a sexist remark.
And a woman in a class with a gender balance lopsided towards women (20 men, 80 women) only has an 19% chance of experiencing a sexist remark on a given day.
This assumes that sexists are equally likely to make sexist remarks, regardless of the gender ratio in a class. However, it seems likely that a sexist in a male-dominated class may well feel more comfortable making sexist remarks than a sexist in a gender balanced or female dominated class. This would make the difference in experienced sexism between male-dominated and gender-balanced/female-dominated classes even more pronounced.
Moreover, the more women who leave a class due to experienced sexism, the more the remaining women must bear the brunt of the remaining sexists.
Therefore, a woman may experience much more sexism in a male dominated field like CS, even if the percentage of sexists among the male population in that field is no different than any other field.
This may very well influence the number of women who complete a degree in tech. Imagine you're a young undergraduate woman. You haven't picked a major yet, but you're taking introductory classes in computer science (80:20 male:female ration) and biology (50:50 male:female ratio). Assuming that you're otherwise equally drawn to both fields, then you may preferentially choose biology for your major, simply because you experience 16% less sexism in that class.
My calculations:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YssLV2j9e2orpmtFTHElORuEOIHw31qtlNxnFRRT-3E/edit?usp=sharing
Assume for the sake of argument that:
* a typical Computer Science (CS) class has 100 students
* a typical CS class has an 4:1 gender ratio (80 men and 20 women).
* about 5% of men are sexist.
* sexist men make one sexist remark per day.
* each student will, on average, interact with 20 fellow students/day, drawn at random from the pool of students in the class.
Under these assumptions, a woman in a CS class has a 56% percent chance of encountering a sexist remark on a given day.
By contrast, a woman in a gender balanced class (50 men, 50 women), has a 40% change of experiencing a sexist remark.
And a woman in a class with a gender balance lopsided towards women (20 men, 80 women) only has an 19% chance of experiencing a sexist remark on a given day.
This assumes that sexists are equally likely to make sexist remarks, regardless of the gender ratio in a class. However, it seems likely that a sexist in a male-dominated class may well feel more comfortable making sexist remarks than a sexist in a gender balanced or female dominated class. This would make the difference in experienced sexism between male-dominated and gender-balanced/female-dominated classes even more pronounced.
Moreover, the more women who leave a class due to experienced sexism, the more the remaining women must bear the brunt of the remaining sexists.
Therefore, a woman may experience much more sexism in a male dominated field like CS, even if the percentage of sexists among the male population in that field is no different than any other field.
This may very well influence the number of women who complete a degree in tech. Imagine you're a young undergraduate woman. You haven't picked a major yet, but you're taking introductory classes in computer science (80:20 male:female ration) and biology (50:50 male:female ratio). Assuming that you're otherwise equally drawn to both fields, then you may preferentially choose biology for your major, simply because you experience 16% less sexism in that class.
My calculations:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YssLV2j9e2orpmtFTHElORuEOIHw31qtlNxnFRRT-3E/edit?usp=sharing