Apple Announces Partnership With Malala Fund to Support Girls' Education

[guzhogi]

Yes - make it available but dont force it. Thats logical and reasonable. It just doesnt seem like thats what they are doing though sometimes here. Its like if Suzy or Janey wants to be a hair dresser then let her do it! If she wants to program computers, then great! But lets not just come up with some percentage based requirements for diversity since thats based on pure BS.

Totally.

Surprise surprise. Cook talking tough on equality while at the same time completely excluding an entire demographic. This guy is nothing more than a hypocritical phony.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean. If you mean this fund goes only girls, I'd have to disagree. I see it as leveling the playing field. My understanding (and I could totally be wrong so please correct me), is that in the areas this fund helps, girls are literally shot if they try to get an education. Now, I don't know Apple can help prevent that, but any education these girls can get will help. When things equalize out on who can get an education, maybe then Apple will open up and provide STEM learning to boys.

 

[justperry]

For those of us that don't know what STEM stands for... (I didn't know)

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics


As for some of the comments here....

This is all good news yet some posters think it's a good idea to post negative comments.

 

[MRrainer]

Malala is the only "SJW" that I respect. Well, the only one that I can name off the top of my head. There are probably more, also historic figures.

She literally took a bullet for her courage.
I don't think a lot of people have an idea about what kind of conviction, resolve and just general balls (bordering stupidity, one could say) it took to stand up to the people who ultimately tried to kill her for it.


I wish her all the best and applaud Apple for joining forces with her. She's an absolute inspiration.

So, this is the reason why I have little respect for SJWs on Twitter...


IMO, the reason women are underrepresented in IT is that they simply don't want to have to do anything with the people in the field. And education, upbringing by the parents and public perception play a big role in that.

In China, there's no such bias. Nerds are nerds. Everywhere.
But parents there still encourage girls to go into technology related fields. I think the same is true even for a lot of states in the Middle East (Eastern Europe anyway - whenever I get Russian women as handlers for tickets I opened at vendors, their answers are usually to-notch. They know their stuff)

If parents would buy less Barbie Dolls and more Lego Mindstorm sets (or just Lego, for the old-fashioned) for their girls, a lot of "problems" could be avoided (IMO).

Math and IT are not the natural enemy of the women. Goddam it, the first programmer was a woman (Ada Lovelace).

We can get there. But that requires an individual effort by parents. It's not something a quota can fix.

 

[69650]

Malala is a truly inspiring young lady.

 

[statik13]

Right - because "addressing" it for the SJW's means to force it even though maybe not that many women are actualy interested in the STEM field? Uh oh... did I just use logic and facts? My bad. Go ahead, force your percentage based employment stipulations onto the world. It'll look pretty on paper but it will be FAKE.

I do agree with you about the percentage based employment. I want the best person for the job, not the best person that fits within gender xxx or race yyy.

Who said force? Sounds like this program is simply looking at ways of removing the roadblocks that exist for women but don't exist for men.

Equal opportunity & competition for all is a good thing; or at least that's what my conservative friends tell me... and I fully support that. Ultimately it leads to a stronger workforce across the industry.

 

[guzhogi]

IMO, the reason women are underrepresented in IT is that they simply don't want to have to do anything with the people in the field. And education, upbringing by the parents and public perception play a big role in that.

A bit NSFW and a bit too light hearted for the conversation, but the whole education thing and how it's dominated by women reminded me of this line from the show "Whose Line is it Anyways?"

I just find the whole "gender roles" and "societal expectations" thing prevents a lot of people from getting into fields that they would excel at.

 

[AFEPPL]

Haha, #equality is getting girls/women up to parity with the opportunities afforded to boys/men over the centuries.

(But check back in if, once that balance is finally achieved, it starts to swing the other way…)

No equality is everyone is given the same chance, its nothing to do with quotas.
basing something on gender or sexual orientation is just discrimination.

 

[-BigMac-]

Of course supporting eduction in general is great, but there are many places in the world where girls specifically are discriminated against in a variety of ways when it comes to getting an education, which is what this seems to be aiming to address.

I applaud Apple for doing this.

Such as an engineering course in a high level University in Australia, having scholarships to girls based purely on their sex? Yeah nah. Not every girl is discriminated against.

Infact a very strong case could be made that males with the same scores as those girls, will not get into that university degree - purely because they are males. Lets get some funding going for them? lol never.... #equality

 

[statik13]

Such as an engineering course in a high level University in Australia, having scholarships to girls based purely on their sex? Yeah nah. Not every girl is discriminated against.

Infact a very strong case could be made that males with the same scores as those girls, will not get into that university degree - purely because they are males. Lets get some funding going for them? lol never.... #equality

Why would men need help entering in that field? We already dominate it and have all sorts of advantages that women trying to enter engineering don't have. I would say even though what you listed is indeed discriminatory, it is balanced and fair.

However, if we are looking at scholarships, this one interests me... Sydney University defends new scholarship that favours men

 

[ikramerica]

Of course it exists in those countries. India in particular is well known for their highly skilled Information Technology, medical and science fields. I have also hired people from Afghanistan and Pakistan for IT, all of which have been very highly skilled.




Run away? Or were never encouraged to be there in the first place?

As adults we reenforce traditional norms from a very young age. Just take a look at toy commercials on TV. How many toys do you see targeted at boys that talk about science? Technology? Exploration? Now, how many commercials do you see targeted at girls the same way? There was even a scandal about it a few years back on Girl's life vs Boy's life magazines.

So you are a proponent for affirmative action? Using what you say above we should restrict the STEM fields to 50% men.

It was a response to the lack of women in sufficient numbers who even want to be in tech fields. The only way to "fix" that and meet that arbitrary 50/50 mix is to force women to give up female dominated jobs and place men in them. Of course, that's stupid. But so is worrying if enough women are coding when most don't want to.

What do I care? My wife is a Principal Software Engineer and makes a lot of moolah, and that's great, and she's good at it. We benefit from the push to hire more women as she will always be able to find another job even as men are discarded as they reach 45. But even she doesn't think it should be 50/50 because there simply isn't a large enough pool of women who want to do it.
[doublepost=1516681371][/doublepost]

Such as an engineering course in a high level University in Australia, having scholarships to girls based purely on their sex? Yeah nah. Not every girl is discriminated against.

Infact a very strong case could be made that males with the same scores as those girls, will not get into that university degree - purely because they are males. Lets get some funding going for them? lol never.... #equality

In the U.K. it's 2-1 women vs men in university now, with white men basically restricted form higher education unless you are connected. It's a systematic destruction of the white male heirarchy by excluding white male children from things that all others have access to.

 

[-BigMac-]

Why would men need help entering in that field? We already dominate it and have all sorts of advantages that women trying to enter engineering don't have. I would say even though what you listed is indeed discriminatory, it is balanced and fair.

However, if we are looking at scholarships, this one interests me... Sydney University defends new scholarship that favours men

What sort of advantage did I have when I applied for Aerospace Engineering exactly? They were begging for girls to enter the course, and as such the entry score was ~5% lower than I needed.
We dominate it, because it interests us more, not because we are given some sort of unbias advantage. We have to prove ourselves.

So when ANYONE gets an advantage based on sex ANYWHERE, it really grinds my gears. My girlfriend and close friends also share the same concensus, and believe everything, everywhere should be equal.

Glad ONE scholarship in ONE uni favours men. And look at that.. the uni had to defend its stance on it haha what a joke

 

[dotnet]

I'm in favour of removing discrimination wherever it lurks, but... does this mean the new Mac mini will be available in rose gold?

 

[statik13]

What sort of advantage did I have when I applied for Aerospace Engineering exactly? They were begging for girls to enter the course, and as such the entry score was ~5% lower than I needed.
We dominate it, because it interests us more, not because we are given some sort of unbias advantage. We have to prove ourselves.

It isn't that we are given any particular advantage. it is that men are never presented with the same obstacles that women who wish to enter the STEM field have to overcome.

For example, did you ever ask yourself if university was the right decision or if you'd have to give up your career to raise a family? Did you ever take advantage of "safe walk" to walk you to your bus? Or were to scared to go running in the morning because it was dangerous? Did you ever have friends or family members second guessing your decision because you are male? Did they suggest maybe you'd be better suited for a less technical field? Or that you're just attending university to find a spouse?

I know as a male, none of these questions even crossed my mind until I had a frank discussion with some of my female IT colleagues.

So when ANYONE gets an advantage based on sex ANYWHERE, it really grinds my gears. My girlfriend and close friends also share the same concensus, and believe everything, everywhere should be equal.

Good. As you should be. Want to take it to the next level? Harvard has a great Implicit Associations Test that will help identify just how (or not) biased you are yourself.

I won't ask you to share your results, but you can try it here: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/australia/

You'll need to scroll down and choose the test on Gender.

Glad ONE scholarship in ONE uni favours men. And look at that.. the uni had to defend its stance on it haha what a joke

And now you've lost me. It sounds like you are claiming it's completely unfair when women get this special treatment but are glad when men get it? Care to elaborate?