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1 in 5 STEM bros whinge they can't catch a break in tech world they run

White men complain they're held back by 'reverse discrimination'

A bunch of blokes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – STEM – jobs reckon they are the victim of "reverse discrimination" from efforts to diversify the ranks in tech companies.

This is according to a study by Pew Research, which said this week that an August survey of men in STEM careers showed that 19 per cent of fellas claim to have experienced gender discrimination and 7 per cent believe their gender makes it harder for them to succeed at work.

Nearly one fifth of the men surveyed – the type of guys who account for 80 per cent of the tech staff and 75 per cent of leadership at Google – said they simply can't get a fair break in the industry and have the deck stacked against them. Specifically, the broflakes said they had experienced gender discrimination against them at some point.

"Today the white male is the enemy," said one member of the allegedly oppressed group occupying 77.8 per cent of Intel's engineering roles and 80.2 per cent of its executive jobs.

"I’ve seen too many qualified white males passed over for promotions or advancement in favor of a woman and/or minority. Qualifications don’t matter these days, rather your gender and race matter."

While men may account for 76 per cent of Oracle's engineering jobs and 77 per cent of its leadership ranks, some still feel like they simply can't get a fair shake these days as companies pursue efforts to bring in women and minorities.

"In the tech industry, with so many males in engineering roles, males are treated unfairly when applying to other roles," griped one Asian male.

"Women are treated unfairly because they are promoted and selected … with less experience and less qualifications so that management (and the company) can be seen as ‘diverse’ at the expense of someone who has objectively more experience and qualifications who happens to be male for middle management and higher."

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Bafflingly, women who work in STEM jobs didn't seem sympathetic to the predicament of the folks who make up 77 per cent of Apple's tech positions and 71 per cent of its management.

Some 74 per cent of the women polled said they had experienced gender discrimination against them, while 30 per cent report being targeted for sexual harassment and 57 per cent said they didn't believe women get fair consideration for promotion and advancement.

"A woman has to be significantly better at her job to be judged just as good," said one woman who apparently isn't satisfied despite getting 19 per cent of Microsoft's tech and leadership roles.

"The reality has not changed in 36 years even though there are more women in engineering now."

The plight of men to advance beyond the tokenism that resigns them to settling for things like 84.6 per cent of Uber's tech jobs and 88.7 per cent of its leadership was highlighted this week when former Google engineer James Damore filed his class-action lawsuit against Google.

Damore believes straight white men are a targeted group at the Mountain View ads giant, and wants the court to pay out damages after he and others were "ostracized, belittled, and punished for their heterodox political views, and for the added sin of their birth circumstances of being Caucasians and/or males."

Google said it plans to challenge the suit in court. ®

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