[TriLUG] The biggest deterrent for women in tech

[John Vaughters]

>I think some non-trivial differences compared to open source are:
>- all of those women were getting paid, and perhaps well

100% correct, except the maybe the pay. I have no idea how their pay is relative to their environment, but I can tell you we had a pay ratio of 3 to 1. Meaning we got three Indian employees for every one US employee. We contracted a couple of building floors, but they were still just contrators, albiet long term.
 
You are also correct about open-source vs closed. I have worked with many truly talented App Developers that are so entrenched in MS that they have heard of Linux, but actually look down at it as a platform for people that just are not good enough to work with MS. The attitude, that you get what you pay for and since Linux is free, well you get what you pay for. Mind you these are talented people, but very ignorant and deeply entrenched. 
 
One of my favorite arguments being about MSSQL and how awsome it is, and for what it does it is awesome. But the ignorance of not understanding how MySQL is superior in almost every aspect except integration with say .Net ecosystem. Easy to sucker them in on this arguement and then explain that MySQL backends websites like YouTube and watch the gleam fall from their eyes. Even more fun watch them try to do internet searches only to realize their disappointment the MSSQL is a mostly localized small App database. Although small can be quite big, but not even close to what Open-Source is doing.
 
>- the company presumably had anti sexual harassment policies, which puts
>some constraints on what men feel they can say and do
 
I have no clue what policies Indain companies have. Their entire work environment is completely different than ours. They have a factory of Tech employees and a complete city infrastructure to support it. It is quite amazing.