While we try not to get too political here at Women in Comms, it's hard to ignore all the media attention on the 2016 election this season, which is now just a few weeks away. Much of that attention has been focused on women -- in the workplace, in the home and in public spaces. This past Sunday's second presidential town hall debate had journalists and newscasters alike frenzied over Donald Trump's leaked statements but also his predatory stance and general lack of boundaries and decorum on stage during the debate. See below for a few of the most on-the-mark tweets of the evening. (See WiCipedia: Trumpisms, Marriage Penalties & Back-to-School Inspo.)

One of our favorite new words, mansplaining, has also reached peak Twitter status this week. Computer scientist and professor Jen Golbeck expressed anger directed at programming language Java this week, and promptly received a patronizing response from a man that said, "learn it and you'll never want to use anything else ;)." Mashable covered the Twitter storm and Golbeck's responses to the assumption that she's a coding novice, presumably because she's a woman. She redirected the conversation "to a deeper problem with sexism women in tech face today: how men automatically assume their inexperience or incompetence, sexually harass them and give them a general sense of a patronizing 'pat on the head' as you would a child for a job well done." A man empathized with Golbeck in the tweet reply below, and in the process may have just provided the first dictionary definition for the word "mansplain." (See WiCipedia: Facebook's LGBT Stats, Broettes & 'Tiny Lady Hands'.)

Manuals for women in tech -- the getting through the day kind -- have been all the rage lately. Lately we've talked about books for women eyeing the corner office, including Lean In and Feminist Fight Club, and the benefits and disadvantages of holding women-only events. Last week, the Dreamforce16 conference in San Francisco paid close attention to gender and diversity in the tech industry, focusing several sessions on women in STEM, race and equality. Diginomica reports that Dreamforce16 stitched together its own "survival guide for women in tech." From dealing with a lack of restrooms for women to learning how to network over "cigars and scotch," female founders and tech-savvy employees shared their experiences of discrimination and tips and tricks to get recognized for skills instead of gender. In a panel of four women talking about gender, the message was clear: If we tell girls from the get go that they're smart instead of pretty, that they can be engineers instead of princesses, we may be able to reshape the way women are seen in STEM industries, and then we wouldn't need a guidebook to being the minority at all. (See WiCipedia: Feminist Fight Club, FinTech Femmes & Feminine Freebies.)

All too often we hear about women being discriminated against for jobs and promotions because of gender discrimination, especially in tech. Yahoo has the opposite situation on its hands this week. Reuters reports that a lawsuit was recently filed stating that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer illegally laid off male employees, especially from the upper echelons. The lawsuit specifically targets a newly implemented quarterly review process, calling it "arbitrary and discriminatory." "The lawsuit claims former Chief Marketing Officer Kathy Savitt 'intentionally hired and promoted women because of their gender,' noting that 14 of about 16 senior level editorial employees hired by her were women." While we definitely want to take any claims seriously, this almost feels like an April Fool's Day prank. Maybe Yahoo should be added to the recent Anita Borg Institute's list of the best companies for women in tech? Just kidding! Discrimination against any group of people does not create a healthy workplace for anyone. (See WiCipedia: Datanauts, Dudes & Deals.)

— Eryn Leavens, Special Features & Copy Editor, Light Reading