Ladies at interview

Leehaa · Feb 25, 2008

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..Glad to see that this has sparked off a nice debate

and:

Arroryn said: ↑

Some interesting posts here but I think it may be a fear of treading into new territory as opposed to anything else that keeps women from a career in IT.

It's not just the 'tech' side of things, as you can choose to work in an industry that would also maintain your overall level of enthusiasm - IT support doesn't just mean working "in IT", every sector needs technological support of some variety.

But whilst the percentage of men to women remains as it is, and the media keeps on pumping out stereotypes, it's just not a sexy career to get into. You say at school "I want to do IT" and they say "you want to what?". Unless I want to be an ICT teacher. That, apparently, is reasonable.

Being an IT tech - doing our job - is still ladelled with dollops of 'brand stereotyping'. I read and write fantasy fiction, I write on internet forums, I used to really enjoy gaming (waiting for Spore to come out at the moment before I give another portion of my life over to a computer game, but really love Elder Scrolls games). When they found out I wrote fantasy novels, one of the members of staff where I worked turned around and said "my god, you really are a geek, aren't you?" Yeah I am. So what? I enjoy this stuff. Heck, I even do Warhammer. But a lot of women just... don't. And it's the media that pumps it out at them. Women play with dolls and doll-related accessories, and when they grow up they like shoes and dresses and make-up and all the expensive boring paraphenalia that comes along with that. Sorry but... no. I'd rather stick a blunted pencil through my eye and gargle razor blades.

Movies such as Swordfish and the Matrix have tried to make 'tech' look sexy and cool, but the reality is it isn't sexy and cool. It's a difficult but rewarding career. A lot of it is also physical, and despite the fact that women are calling for 'equality' with men, not many are prepared to admit that for equality, you need to do equal jobs, and that includes hauling around CRTs and scrabbling under dusty desks plugging in things for the lazy gets that couldn't check themselves.

I think you get more female IT managers as the management of IT is a less hands-on role, and depending on the industry, may need less technological awareness. You may get loggers and floggers, but where the role is truly hands on, I think less women apply as less women are prepared to get their hands dirty and chip their manicures. It's not male discrimination, or any of that crap. You just need to have the (metaphorical) balls to apply yourself. The world is the oyster to anyone who is willing to put in the effort, and they alone will reap their rewards.
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WHAT SHE SAID! Lol

dmarsh · Feb 25, 2008

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Generally, the women who do have the drive and courage to enter those professions have to "out-male-the-males" in order to be even sort of accepted.
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I've seen this happen quite a lot in IT also, I've had several female bosses who were literally a nightmare to work with...

They generally had very little interest in IT also and fitted the pointy haired boss from dilbert stereotype fairly well. My males bosses by comparison have been 50/50 on average by comparison.

I've only ever worked with one good female coder in 14 years, don't ask me why that might be, she was also quite atttractive...

I have no idea why society is the way it is, I'd say its the constant subliminal influences from society others have hinted at, women presumably feel because of these that its not their thing...

Maybe they've just figured out that IT isn't important and there far better things to spend thier time on...

Arroryn · Feb 25, 2008

dmarsh26 said: ↑

Maybe they've just figured out that IT isn't important and there far better things to spend thier time on...
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... by way of media influence and 'gender typical' careers. Don't get me wrong, I've crawled under desks where people have had plastic cups full of mould spores, a whole family's worth of shoes and all other monstrosities before you get to the PC (which is obviously full of crap too) and thought 'why, Christ, why?'. But you just get on with the job. I think I feel this way because I've done manual labour, and trust me, crawling under a desk beats cleaning out a concrete hopper at the end of the shift, hands down.

Women are slowly trying to make their way into 'male dominated' industries - but the last bastions of these industries are predominantly those that are labour-orientated (or board table orientated, but I have less experience of that...). It takes strong nerves to walk into a place of work where your gender makes up 0.5% of the workforce - that being you alone. I think a lot of the women in these industries will typically tend to be 'one of the lads' themselves. But we're getting there. Slowly, generation by generation, we're kicking your asses. lol.

dmarsh · Feb 25, 2008

But we're getting there. Slowly, generation by generation, we're kicking your asses. lol.
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Loads of women in all the companies I have worked in, just they don't do techie jobs by and large, in many cases the other departments are but a desk or a corridor away, the techie team are also not monsters, so I see no real barriers, its not like me trying to become a nurse or take a pilates class !

BosonMichael · Feb 25, 2008

dmarsh26 said: ↑

...so I see no real barriers, its not like me trying to become a nurse or take a pilates class !
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Well, to be honest, there aren't barriers to you becoming a nurse or taking a pilates class. That said, those things probably aren't on your "To Do" list!

dmarsh · Feb 25, 2008

To me very few women demonstrate any interest in 'Hitting the Metal', they are not interested in learning deeply technical things for their own sake, how many women learn assembler ?

How many women want to be on death march projects coding 24/7 for weeks on end ?

For some reason they have no trouble doing physics, chemistry, biotech, forensics, so I can't understand it...

Women that do go into IT tend to prefer roles with a 'fluffy' side like Business Analyst, IT manager or Tester etc where they can use their 'people skills', which are a gender trait where they have in advantage...

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