Male nerd privilege

Cathy O'Neill writes about Male nerd privilege.

Would it help if we gave it another name? Basic human rights, perhaps? Because that’s what we’re talking about, at the end of the day. The right to be free, to not get shot by the police, the right to hold a good job and care for your family, stuff like that.

Of course, there are plenty of people who are unwilling to move to the next level because they don’t acknowledge the structural racism, sexism, and other stuff at all. They don’t see the current situation as problematic. But on the other hand, there are loads of people who do, and Aaronson is clearly one of them.

As for problems for women in STEM, we’ve already studied this and we all know that both men and women are sexist, so it’s obviously not a blame game here. Instead, it’s a real cultural conundrum which we would like to approach thoughtfully and we’d like to make progress on as a team.

Emphasis Mine

It is a cultural problem that can only be solved by moving to a classless society for things like sexism and patriarchy serve the interests of the ruling class by dividing people against each other. Once you accept division by gender, you are more likely to accept division by privilege.

In order to overcome such divisions, we have to mature as adults instead of being children squabbling over who's got what toys and whom mummy and daddy loves the most. This is a very painful social development, and many choose to remain as adolescents: privileges of adults with the responsibities of children.