Likewise with culture. Each culture has its own attitudes toward leadership, work, aesthetics, and counterparts to the Platonic ideal.

Add to it that women often don’t want to go for all the glory because we often put family ahead of career — I know I do. I think twice before going to a conference because I don’t want to think about how to get the baby taken care of. Not because we’re mushy headed or anything, but there’s practical aspects of keeping the house in order to think of.

@Brian: Adding one woman isn’t going to solve the gender diversity problem or result in diverse thoughts, but adding a number of women will. Listen more closely to what women are saying about their experiences — they may not reveal what they’ve experienced as readily as you might like, but we wouldn’t be having this discussion if sexism didn’t still happen.

“There was a time in San Francisco when musicians were blindly selected to form part of the SF Symphony. Judges were behind curtains and accepted musicians purely on their skill regardless of background. The majority of those musicians turned out to be white males.”

Interesting. Perhaps when choosing a panel, we should ask people to submit their body of work and resume, and reason why they want to join the group, without providing their name, race or gender. That way, you can select a diverse group based on the details that really matter, their background and thoughts.

(that was tongue in cheek)

Culture and gender can and often do make a difference in people’s perspectives. I grant you that. However, that is not the only aspect that makes a difference in people’s perspectives. It is an mistake to assume that a diversity of gender or race automatically results in a diversity of thinking. You are looking at the problem in the wrong way. You’re making the issue of diversity about race and gender when it doesn’t need to be about those things. Allow women, minorities, and yes…even white men, to step outside of their confined boxes. Otherwise, you are maintaining sexism and racism rather than fighting against it.

The whole premise behind ideas like affirmative action and gender quotas is to work against racism and sexism in the job market. There is, no doubt, racism and sexism in the work place. I have observed it. However, I don’t observe or hear of any signs of racism or sexism in technology circles. They all seem to welcome anyone that is interested in the technology.

An unfortunate truth in the world is that there happens to be an excess of white men involved in technology at this point in time. That is because of multiple factors… starting with a lack of equal opportunity in the workplace, and also social influences. (A father raising a daughter to be car mechanic is a rare thing). This lack of equal opportunity in the job market, however, does not equate to a lack of equal opportunity in a technology group. I just don’t see it.