I've been a systems administrator for 12 years and have not encountered any sexism from my colleagues in the workplace. I have never had my professional competence questioned by colleagues because I'm female, although it has happened a multitude of times from end users. I have encountered porn as part of supporting various environments, but I have never ever witnessed it being exchanged by colleagues or had it foisted upon me by them. I have never had any patronising remarks about being "on the rag" or any such thing. I do make my threshold for "battle of the sexes" jokes that are the usual fare at any level of society clear - i.e. non-existent - but I'm willing to joke and laugh with the guys. I encountered a hell of a lot more overt sexism and exposure to pornography in my former life in the printing trade.
Yes, there are fuckheads out there, but I also happen to believe there are no more fuckheads in IT than there are in any other profession.
This is NOT to say that there is no sexism in IT. As well as the overt kind, which you will encounter more or less of depending on the actual industry you're embedded in as a sysadmin (I work in aviation, but formerly worked in tertiary institutions), there are all the myriad subtle ways of telling girls/women that they are not suited to be systems administrators. Skills that you require to be a good administrator include the following:
* The willingness to tinker and experiment to figure out how something works. How often are girls given lego, electrical kits, robot kits, models to assemble? How soon do they get lessons on practical problem-solving skills?
* The ability to appropriately say that you don't know enough about X, but you'll be able to find out and provide proper input in Y time. Girls get programmed to admit ignorance much more readily than men do. Simply saying you "don't know" when asked about something technical is not a way to gain respect. (Of course, tipping over to the other extreme and bullshitting that you know everything means you're a cowboy or a particular kind of "consultant"
* Related to the above, the ability to project confidence that you know what you are doing. Girls and women are to often educated to soften their words, to compromise even when they are right, to not sound too definite for fear of sounding "aggressive". However, as part of projecting that confidence, you have to be able to not alienate certain masculine egos for fear of being a "bitch" or a "harpy" or "strident". It can be done, as I can attest.
* The ability to put your hand up when you've cocked up, but to be able to strategise ways of FIXING what went wrong. Girls get penalised much more at an early age for being "clumsy" or "illogical" or "untechnical/unscientific", when of course they aren't any more likely to make technical mistakes than men are. They are also more encouraged to give up and let the "more competent" people take over.
* Much of successful systems administration requires good communication, which women are supposed to be better at. However, we need to develop that confident and knowledgeable style, which again, is something we can need to work hard to develop (I can attest to that as well). We do need to blow our own trumpets - again, not something we're often programmed to do - not at the expense of the rest of the team, but also so that our contribution is being acknowledged by those around us. Guys seem to be socialised to do that from the get-go.
* Obviously we need to be unafraid of the geek label and not adverse to being around geeky people (not the first choice of career for those who are interested in glamour or creativity)
With all that in mind, I think more women SHOULD get into systems administration. It really bugs me that in 12 years and a number of jobs, I can count the number of female sys admins I've encountered personally on one hand (one of whom I interviewed for a job recently). It really is despicable. And while there are all those reasons I observed for women being undermined in terms of choosing IT careers, my experience is that the limiting socialisation factors don't quite add up to the paucity of women in IT.
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I respectfully disagree
Date: 2010-06-11 11:45 am (UTC)I've been a systems administrator for 12 years and have not encountered any sexism from my colleagues in the workplace. I have never had my professional competence questioned by colleagues because I'm female, although it has happened a multitude of times from end users. I have encountered porn as part of supporting various environments, but I have never ever witnessed it being exchanged by colleagues or had it foisted upon me by them. I have never had any patronising remarks about being "on the rag" or any such thing. I do make my threshold for "battle of the sexes" jokes that are the usual fare at any level of society clear - i.e. non-existent - but I'm willing to joke and laugh with the guys. I encountered a hell of a lot more overt sexism and exposure to pornography in my former life in the printing trade.
Yes, there are fuckheads out there, but I also happen to believe there are no more fuckheads in IT than there are in any other profession.
This is NOT to say that there is no sexism in IT. As well as the overt kind, which you will encounter more or less of depending on the actual industry you're embedded in as a sysadmin (I work in aviation, but formerly worked in tertiary institutions), there are all the myriad subtle ways of telling girls/women that they are not suited to be systems administrators. Skills that you require to be a good administrator include the following:
* The willingness to tinker and experiment to figure out how something works. How often are girls given lego, electrical kits, robot kits, models to assemble? How soon do they get lessons on practical problem-solving skills?
* The ability to appropriately say that you don't know enough about X, but you'll be able to find out and provide proper input in Y time. Girls get programmed to admit ignorance much more readily than men do. Simply saying you "don't know" when asked about something technical is not a way to gain respect. (Of course, tipping over to the other extreme and bullshitting that you know everything means you're a cowboy or a particular kind of "consultant"
* Related to the above, the ability to project confidence that you know what you are doing. Girls and women are to often educated to soften their words, to compromise even when they are right, to not sound too definite for fear of sounding "aggressive". However, as part of projecting that confidence, you have to be able to not alienate certain masculine egos for fear of being a "bitch" or a "harpy" or "strident". It can be done, as I can attest.
* The ability to put your hand up when you've cocked up, but to be able to strategise ways of FIXING what went wrong. Girls get penalised much more at an early age for being "clumsy" or "illogical" or "untechnical/unscientific", when of course they aren't any more likely to make technical mistakes than men are. They are also more encouraged to give up and let the "more competent" people take over.
* Much of successful systems administration requires good communication, which women are supposed to be better at. However, we need to develop that confident and knowledgeable style, which again, is something we can need to work hard to develop (I can attest to that as well). We do need to blow our own trumpets - again, not something we're often programmed to do - not at the expense of the rest of the team, but also so that our contribution is being acknowledged by those around us. Guys seem to be socialised to do that from the get-go.
* Obviously we need to be unafraid of the geek label and not adverse to being around geeky people (not the first choice of career for those who are interested in glamour or creativity)
With all that in mind, I think more women SHOULD get into systems administration. It really bugs me that in 12 years and a number of jobs, I can count the number of female sys admins I've encountered personally on one hand (one of whom I interviewed for a job recently). It really is despicable. And while there are all those reasons I observed for women being undermined in terms of choosing IT careers, my experience is that the limiting socialisation factors don't quite add up to the paucity of women in IT.
(cont...)