Journos Fall for Fake Sexism in Tech Study
Richard Moorhead
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Liberal journalists and mainstream media companies recently circulated the results of a study that supposedly demonstrated mass sexism in the hiring practice of major tech companies.
There’s one big problem- it appears the study is entirely a hoax, with its creators going dark and refusing to substantiate the methods used to obtain their results.
Journalists with mainstream media outlets such as the Washington Post, Bloomberg, and the New York Times have circulated the results of a ‘study’ done by a supposed tech recruiting agency called ‘Speak with a Geek.’ The study alleges that women were massively more likely to receive job offers from tech companies if they removed their names from their resumes, to the point where only 5% of applicants who openly identified as female were interviewed by employers.
But there’s one problem- after investigators and credible journalists dug into the findings presented by the story, it seems likely that the study doesn’t even exist. ‘Speak with a Geek’ has deleted its entire internet presence, and no digital record of the study’s actual contents can be found.
The kind of mass sexism alleged by the fake study was identified by individuals familiar with the tech industry as doubtful. Other studies of hiring preferences have demonstrated that gender-blinding resumes and job applications makes employers more likely to hire men than women.
Australian government agencies ended an experiment in which resumes were gender-blinded when it was found that the project made “gender inequality” in hiring even more prevalent. In other words, men were more likely to be hired when decisions were made on resume quality without consideration of gender.
Liberal and centrist “journalists” feeling embarrassed after falling for yet another “hate” hoax- the latest of what may have been dozens in recent months- may be left with no choice other than to learn to code in an effort to gain familiarity with the tech industry’s hiring practices firsthand.
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