My friend got fired for saying this... your thoughts?

[DonFerrari]

the-pi-guy said:

It seems like the wrong sentiment.  

It's one thing to want to support more women to get into the field, it's another when it's clear that they want to hire women after they get into the field regardless of skill. I'm a big fan of diversity.

Tachikoma said:
I was asked the same recently, as a woman I said "if you're hiring for gender instead of skill I'm working for the wrong company it seems.

Pissed off my evaluator immensely, they forwarded my case to executive level, who re-interviewed me and asked if I'd like to rephrase my answer.
I said yes and handed him my notice.

Incentives and polarization to force a gender balance in jobs women clearly are rarely interested in, is a slap to the face of any man or woman who worked their ass off to get the same position that is now being seemingly handed out with ease so long as you at least identify as a woman and can fulfill a quota.

Fuck em.

This exactly.  

Sure it might be a great idea to look at why exactly women aren't interested in the job.  Maybe many don't know exactly what it is, maybe they see it as nerdy, or maybe they just aren't interested.  

But if a company is hiring gender before skill, then it's exactly this.  Company A has a quota to hire X women, and instead hires some woman who has half as much skill as another candidate.  It isn't fair.  

Men join the profession even if it's nerd, underpayed, lot of stress, etc... so image of the profession shouldn't be an excuse unless we think women only want diversity and equality on the top end.