Posted on 12/07/2015 11:03:58 AM PST by Citizen Zed
IBM seems to have made a bit of a faux pas with a campaign that was supposed to encourage more women to work in science and technology.
But women in the industry are pretty insulted with the computer giant's online campaign asking women to use a hairdyer of all things to experiment with.
They tweeted a video (which has since been deleted) explaining that less than three in ten science and engineering jobs are held by women. So the idea was probably in good faith, but in future they may want to get a second opinion on how best to dispel stereotypes rather than reinforcing them.
It said: "Show the world that work shouldn't be defined by what people think of you, but by the way you think... let's blow away the misconception, dissolve the stigma and blast through the bias, and bring innovation culture into balance. How? Hack a hairdryer - you, a wind blaster, and an idea... Hack heat, reroute airflow, reinvent sound."
Ironically, the aim was to "re-engineer misconceptions about women in tech" Doh.
Cue the mocking...
@IBM shame I don't use a hairdryer. I guess that's the end of my career in STEM. Brb quitting my astrophysics PhD. #HackAHairDryer - Jessica V (@ThatAstroKitten) December 7, 2015
Sorry @IBM i'm too busy working on lipstick chemistry and writing down formulae with little hearts over the i s to #HackAHairDryer - Jennie Rosenbaum (@minxdragon) December 7, 2015
@IBM shame I don't use a hairdryer. I guess that's the end of my career in STEM. Brb quitting my astrophysics PhD. #HackAHairDryer - Jessica V (@ThatAstroKitten) December 7, 2015
Here, @IBM. My lady brain came up with this for #HackAHairDryer. Kuhn would declare it paradigm shifting, surely. pic.twitter.com/QTfWwnFolB - Jo Alabaster (@joalabaster) December 7, 2015
Hey @IBM - Margaret Hamilton was too busy writing code to get us to the moon to f*ck w/ a hairdryer. #HackAHairDryer pic.twitter.com/MCaA7Gh4iV - Trepanning For Gold (@reubenacciano) December 7, 2015
Because for 2015, no one could believe how dated the premise was.
@IBM For a company that prides itself on the future of technology I'm surprised your ideologies are taken from the 1800s #HackAHairDryer - sam price (@s_pricetag) December 7, 2015
How to make progress in equality: start treating women like modern human beings instead of the 1950s housewife trope. #HackAHairDryer - Sage Franch (@theTrendyTechie) December 7, 2015
I'm sure someone at @IBM would have considered and dropped vacuum cleaner before #hackahairdryer - thereby seeing idiocy of their plan! - bcsharland (@hopsbitsphotons) December 7, 2015
FYI @IBM & everyone else - you can promote getting women into science without ALWAYS relating it to cosmetics & hair care. #HackAHairDryer - Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) December 7, 2015
People are just too sensitive, bunch of wimps
How does one have time to contemplate such BS?
Not that I truly want to understand them, but how does one actually take the time to think of this?
So there’s a difference between the sexes in the number of STEM professionals.
But - its not PC to acknowledge any differences between the sexes.
PC solution? Attack men, using sexism, to destroy at least 20% more boys from pursuing a STEM career. Use sexism to tell girls they are superior to boys. Use tax money to fund sexist girl hand-holding programs under the cover of “equality.” Find tax funded educational programs preferred by boys, and destroy them based on sex alone.
Result? 50% damage of boys, no new STEM girls. Feminist response? “Mission Accomplished.”
Must be a very slow news day at the Irish Times. Basing a story about a backlash on Twitter posts???? You could have a story about a man who gave all of his money to help starving children and who spent the rest of his life working in soup kitchens and you’d get a million angry Twitter posts slamming the man.
The better way to get more women in STEM is get the Girl Scouts and other youth organizations to take girls to Engineering Day at local colleges, TEACH all the tech badges, etc.
I had my father come to my daughter’s troop to teach several badges that I didn’t have the skills or objects to teach. They got more tech in those sessions than this project would have done.
And I’ve taken them to Engineering Day at the local college more than once. That has more impact than pink legos and assumption that all women are vain.
I’d follow up with “Hack an iron”, “ Image processing and thermal sensing for burn free shirts when ironing for your husband”, and “”Make me a sandwich bitch” phenome analysis for better response times when your husband demands a quick snack”.
Thatll keep these perpetually offended people talking.
THIS is the proper geek response to “hack a hairdryer”: https://what-if.xkcd.com/35/ (from book “What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions”).
Why do we need more women engineers?
To make our sandwiches, duh.
LOL. I work with this one female engineer. She happens to be very attractive and bright as the Sun. It’s fun watching all the dudes sweat her. (I might too) If only I was 25 like her...
It could be worse. Apparently the campaign they didn’t run with was “Hack a Walmart Clock and a Metal Pencil Case.”
Good grief. Everyone is offended these days. Grow up and shut up, whinies!
We need more of the top talent in value added majors in general, regardless of race or sex.
...and yet no man I know uses or buys a hair dryer!! You can’t win with these people. They just picked a device that women use. That said, they should’ve known what the response would be like.
I’m well aware as a EE.
I use a hair dryer to blow the scale off my forging
hammer dies and it keeps the dies warm too.
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