Wonder why you’re having a hard time finding women applicants for your male-dominated workplace? Wonder why it keeps “not working out” when you do hire them? OK, since you asked…(thread)

1: Responsible people have responsibilities. Does your crunch culture weed out employees who have people counting on them outside of work? That tends to be women. Ironically, dudes who need their moms to do everything for them can get hired. Their moms? Not so much.

2: Understand that being a woman in a male environment may involve creepy propositions & collegiality mistaken for "she wants me," especially @ networking events w/ alcohol. "Beer fridge" workplaces can feel unsafe. Not everyone has great memories of the frat house.

3: Don’t set women against each other. Every sexist environment has the Cool Girl Who Doesn’t Mind. She laughs at your dick jokes. She’s fun, and such a better “culture fit” than a woman who complains. The Cool Girl will sell that woman out under pressure.

Ditto the veteran woman who figures, “If I had to put up with sexist crap all these years, you can manage too, Snowflake.” These are SURVIVAL behaviors. Don’t assume they mean everything’s fine.

4. Stop saying, “Girls just aren’t interested.” In h.s. I was 99th percentile nationally in math. I signed up for CS, but a creepy guy in that class followed me home from school every day. So I took Drama instead. That times a million is why you can’t find a female programmer.

5. Exceptions are, by definition, exceptional. Some women will power through every obstacle to do the thing they love. Great! But if they’re the only examples, it’s intimidating. The bar to entry feels very, very high. (Like, if you’re not RBG, should you even go to law school?)