Ask HN: Physical work creep in IT jobs, the root cause of unconscious bias?
 I recently took the Linux Foundation &quot;Inclusive Speaker Training&quot;. In brief, it argues that the IT sector favors men due to unconscious bias. This got me thinking: Is it possible that unconscious bias is due to certain IT jobs benefiting (or having benefited in the past) from physical strength? For better or worse, our species features sexual dimorphism: Women are on average physically less strong than men, although intellectually at least as capable. I found that many IT jobs still benefit from physical strength: When working as a network engineer, it was beneficial to be able to lift a 120kg router (with a co-worker, of course) to install it in the rack. When working in start-ups, we often had to mount our own furniture and physical strength could reduce the number of person-hours required to complete the task. Few decades ago, computer screens were crazy heavy, even for men, and being able to put one on your desk would give you access to more screen estate, better colors and&#x2F;or higher resolutions.
I conjecture that each instance of physical work creep gives men more opportunities. For example, a better screen a decade ago could give male graphics designer a small heads-up. Even if men do not intellectually benefit from physical work creep, it might still reinforce the stereotype: &quot;This male candidate feels more suitable for X&quot;.<p>Fortunately, if my conjecture is true, the solution is &quot;easy&quot;: Fight physical work creep, by making devices, installations, furniture, etc. more physically inclusive.<p>Could physical work creep cause unconscious bias? Have any scholars studied this issue? Are there more &#x2F; better examples of physical work creep in IT jobs?<p>P.S.: I conjecture that this issue is not restricted to IT. Non-fly-by-wire airliners, e.g., B737, require force to command the stick, which be designed to the strength of men. I would be curious to see if the proportion of female pilots on Airbus A320 is larger than on B737.