12-17-2009, 06:36 PM
I'm entertained by the defensive reaction, provoked by this minor study. Dismissing it as flawed, or invalid. My only complaint about the study is that its premise, and conclusions, are obvious, self-evident, it's not really news. It's a trivial (small-scale, imprecise) way to illustrate something we already know. I'd be curious to see some input from our rare women members, the few that can tolerate the male clubhouse environment here at macresource forums.
My wife works at Microsoft, in an overwhelmingly male environment, not unlike the one described here. For reasons only known to her, has always sought professional environments where women were traditionally unwelcome (like construction, math, computer science, etc.) and thrives there, in spite of the predictably anti-feminine atmosphere. She's one of the odd ones that adapted easily to it. (and MS is full of egotistical male geeks)
What struck me as funny is that here we have what might be the last bastion of masculinity is a professional field--one of the rare places that hasn't been gender neutralized with pretty potted plants and other cozy artifacts of a bland, generic workplace, but instead has the potential for untainted classical male self-expression--one of our last refuges! Where men can be men!
And how do they define "masculine environment"? Star Trek icons and junk food wrappers? This is masculine??? It doesn't strike me as masculine at all. It's more like arrested adolescence. Pimply-faced, inadequately-socialized geeky teenage boy environment. Of course that would turn women off. You'd think it would have the same affect on normal males, too.
My wife works at Microsoft, in an overwhelmingly male environment, not unlike the one described here. For reasons only known to her, has always sought professional environments where women were traditionally unwelcome (like construction, math, computer science, etc.) and thrives there, in spite of the predictably anti-feminine atmosphere. She's one of the odd ones that adapted easily to it. (and MS is full of egotistical male geeks)
What struck me as funny is that here we have what might be the last bastion of masculinity is a professional field--one of the rare places that hasn't been gender neutralized with pretty potted plants and other cozy artifacts of a bland, generic workplace, but instead has the potential for untainted classical male self-expression--one of our last refuges! Where men can be men!
And how do they define "masculine environment"? Star Trek icons and junk food wrappers? This is masculine??? It doesn't strike me as masculine at all. It's more like arrested adolescence. Pimply-faced, inadequately-socialized geeky teenage boy environment. Of course that would turn women off. You'd think it would have the same affect on normal males, too.