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A Request to Women Working in Tech
A friend recently said something about which, as Shanna's father, I feel conflicted.
She said that as a woman working in technology, she wouldn't recommend that other women enter the field. She's a system administrator. So, while she's not a computer programmer like myself, she's in a very similar field with mostly similar interpersonal dynamics. That is to say, what she says almost certainly applies to my field if it applies to hers. And as an actual woman working in technology, her experience is going to be significantly more accurate than my from-the-outside impressions.
I'm not going to repeat her reasons here. Rather, I'd be very curious whether other women working in technical fields, especially system administration and/or programming, felt the same way. Anybody care to comment? When you comment, please let me know what you do/did in technology. For some of you, I'll know offhand. For many of you, I'll have forgotten. For anybody who comments, there may be other readers who don't know/remember.
Anonymous comments are turned on here. Technically I *do* log IPs and I don't see a quick way to turn it off just for this post, but you have my word that I won't attempt to match up anybody anonymous here with any specific person. If you're really worried for some reason, there are many fine technical measures to make that tracking ineffective at finding you.
She said that as a woman working in technology, she wouldn't recommend that other women enter the field. She's a system administrator. So, while she's not a computer programmer like myself, she's in a very similar field with mostly similar interpersonal dynamics. That is to say, what she says almost certainly applies to my field if it applies to hers. And as an actual woman working in technology, her experience is going to be significantly more accurate than my from-the-outside impressions.
I'm not going to repeat her reasons here. Rather, I'd be very curious whether other women working in technical fields, especially system administration and/or programming, felt the same way. Anybody care to comment? When you comment, please let me know what you do/did in technology. For some of you, I'll know offhand. For many of you, I'll have forgotten. For anybody who comments, there may be other readers who don't know/remember.
Anonymous comments are turned on here. Technically I *do* log IPs and I don't see a quick way to turn it off just for this post, but you have my word that I won't attempt to match up anybody anonymous here with any specific person. If you're really worried for some reason, there are many fine technical measures to make that tracking ineffective at finding you.
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(Anonymous) 2010-06-08 05:25 am (UTC)(link)I'm a female programmer. I've been in industry for about a decade, but I've been a math/science nerd my whole life and I grew up in a family steeped in tech.
The people who have already commented have done a better job of covering the space than I feel capable of, this year, so I'm going to go on a slight tangent. I don't know if this has been brought up already, because reading the comments was bringing up too many negative emotions for me to finish, but I want to make sure someone says it.
Support will make a big difference in whatever path she chooses. Lots of modern sexism revolves around deniability and brushing things off as "no big deal". Having people on her side who believe her when she says "John was being an ass today because I have boobs." or "I can't tell if they didn't hire me because they were looking for someone with more database experience or because I'm female." or when something's hitting her that's too subtle for her to tease out and explain and defend in the face of someone else's disbelief -- that's gold.
It's likely that she will see sexism in places you don't. It's also likely that she'll go through at least one period of ranting about men or boys in a way that will upset you. Be on her side anyway.
Make sure there are middle-aged and older women in her life who are good role models in various (tech or non-tech) ways. Let her know that competency and wonderfulness don't just belong to males and a few token pretty girls.
Above all, though, be on her side, even when it's hard or complicated for you to do so. She needs that bone-deep knowledge that there's someone who thinks she's kick-ass, without any "for a girl" or "and really hot!" attached. She especially needs it if she's going to live in these particular shark-infested waters.
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