A Request to Women Working in Tech

[noahgibbs]

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.

Comments

[judith-s.livejournal.com]

Yes, there is sexism. But there is sexism in almost every career path, and especially well paying career paths which tend to be dominated by men. I've experienced some sexism. And probably caused some too, when I took time off when I had kids and reduced my hours so I could have a family life. My partner whose wife had a baby took off a total of 3 hours that day, and still works 12 hour days and many weekends.

[karenbynight.livejournal.com]

I'd disagree. As a whole, our country has an entirely split personality on the subject of child-rearing and work; we can't decide if having and raising children is the most important work a person can do and so should be a higher priority than one's for-pay career, or if it's a selfish hobby that should no more interfere with your work hours than if you were, say, playing with model airplanes during that time.

Whichever way you believe should be true, the way this split gets played out in the workplace is sexist. If your work partner is to get any sympathy for only taking off three hours for his wife's baby, then we're in the world where kids have priority over work and you're entitled to your time off and reduced workload for having them. If we're in the world where kids are a selfish hobby, then your partner is *just doing his job* by not spending more time at home and shouldn't be noticed for it. But the double standard about it always makes the woman the selfish one and the guy the hero. (At *work*. I'm not talking about the child-rearing realm, which is incredibly sexist in the other direction.)

[judith-s.livejournal.com]

I don't think we disagree. We both agree that it's played against the woman in the workplace.

I was the first female partner of child bearing age in my firm. Then I had children and cut down my hours to effectively 3/4th time. I'm sure at least in part this is the origin of bias against women in general (e.g. the assumption that if you see one female who is a bad programmer, who takes off after having kids, who can't manage, you say "women can't" not "this person can't." In part that comes from having such a small percentage of women.)

I actually do disagree with you regarding child rearing. Whenever Charles is out with our boys (he is the primary caretaker) he always gets a ton of comments about what an amazing Dad he is, and how wonderful the kids are. All true. :) But I don't see similar appreciation for women who are primary caretakers, because it's assumed that it's their job.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

well said