by, for, and about women in science, technology, engineering, & math

On Clay Shirky’s blog, he rants, ‘not enough women have what it takes to behave like arrogant self-aggrandizing jerks,’ and thereby excel in the self promotion that he feels is required in business and academia.

He’s not the first to propose that, though this is the furthest extent of the claim I’ve seen. Commenters recommended Women Don’t Ask as a more measured discussion of the problem and recommended The Curse of the Good Girl as advice for raising assertive and capable daughters. This is all complicated, of course, by studies showing that women are disproportionately penalized for counter-stereotypical behavior, including aggression and assertiveness.

In what is sure to be an ongoing crime spree, I have stolen much of this content from a boisterous MetaFilter thread. Is Shirky just a jerk? Is being a jerk necessary for success? Is he blaming the victim? Yet another man explaining “the way the world is” to women?

Particularly relevant to the mission of stemming.org, were these comments by users girlhacker, howrobotsaremade, and ch1x0r.

What do I think? I don’t have a solution, but it’s an impressive problem.