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1) I find the reason women don't climb that high in the ranks of IT is because there are not many in the field to begin with. For instance, out of my class of computing science we started out with only 5 females. None of them finished with me at graduation. Some choose families, some don't have the time, some decide on some field more suited to females. I don't think we discriminate at all, they often find the lifestyle a computer geek not something they want to be a part of. If there are not many, then not many can reach the top... let alone being of color which makes the odds even greater. I enjoy female perspectives on computing topics. I wish there were more of them.
2) I have seen an increasing number of women in IT when it comes to the more multimedia related fields. For instance, the producer for the new game Assassin's creed coming soon on PS3/Xbox 360 is a woman. Women are really making strides in the computer multimedia realm. Probably because they are very visual learners most of the time when most of computing is very theoretical.
3) I find very little if any discrimination against women in IT. Like myself, many of us computer geeks want to see females. We may be too scared to talk to them sometimes, but at least they are there and offer that female perspective that makes our projects a little more interactive, a little more cutting edge. I think the discrimination argument related to women in IT is getting a bit old. Companies want to hire them, just the lack of them to start with is the problem.
Nice article though. Glad you posted it!
This post has been edited by Martyr2: 27 Sep, 2007 - 11:09 AM
3) I find very little if any discrimination against women in IT. Like myself, many of us computer geeks want to see females.
Yes, even if it means paying $1.99 per minute. Wait, that's on the phone, nevermind.
At any rate, when I worked at fortune 500 company, both departments I worked in I handed my time sheet into a woman (our department manager). 2 for 2, not bad. Most women just find better things to do on the weekends. Namely all the events we were never invited to... so we began to code.
1) I find the reason women don't climb that high in the ranks of IT is because there are not many in the field to begin with. For instance, out of my class of computing science we started out with only 5 females. None of them finished with me at graduation. Some choose families, some don't have the time, some decide on some field more suited to females. I don't think we discriminate at all, they often find the lifestyle a computer geek not something they want to be a part of. If there are not many, then not many can reach the top... let alone being of color which makes the odds even greater. I enjoy female perspectives on computing topics. I wish there were more of them.
I got my first degree in a different era than a vast majority of the members here, but when I was at the University of Georgia there wasn't a single female in any of my classes, that was in the mid to late 80's. So, seeing all the women in the IT world now, compared to what it was way back when I first got started, its come a long way.
Its really a relative issue, some see it as being not enough women, those who have been in this industry a long long time see it as its grown by leaps and bounds.
[might be off] Funny, this topic reminds me of an old physics teacher, who said that physics education started to decline when women started to teach it. His reason for that was the following: when mostly men were teaching it, it was their hobby as well, they've prepared interesting and impressive experiments in advance in their spare time (maybe during the whole weekend), that made the whole thing interesting. However women have to go home right at the end of the classes because teir family and kids are waiting (I know it is something that most fierce feminist would kill for, and say that men could just as well go home and prepare the food, but this guy lived a bit earlier when it was so), they have to prepare food instead of experiments, and so on. Maybe it's something similar, but I think it is tipically a profession that needs dedication. Publishers and other "supportive" roles are fine if you don't wish to do it "full time". So maybe there are some similarities here after all... Am I saying that if women penetrate IT they gonna destroy it? Probably not, but it will be (actually it is already) something different than it used to be (not because of them, it is more like the commercialization of the whole thing, as it gradually becomes a normal profession) So women penetration would actually be an indicator, and not the cause. [/might be off] Damm, just disregard it, I was drinking too much beer...
[might be off] Funny, this topic reminds me of an old physics teacher, who said that physics education started to decline when women started to teach it. His reason for that was the following: when mostly men were teaching it, it was their hobby as well, they've prepared interesting and impressive experiments in advance in their spare time (maybe during the whole weekend), that made the whole thing interesting. However women have to go home right at the end of the classes because teir family and kids are waiting (I know it is something that most fierce feminist would kill for, and say that men could just as well go home and prepare the food, but this guy lived a bit earlier when it was so), they have to prepare food instead of experiments, and so on. Maybe it's something similar, but I think it is tipically a profession that needs dedication. Publishers and other "supportive" roles are fine if you don't wish to do it "full time". So maybe there are some similarities here after all... Am I saying that if women penetrate IT they gonna destroy it? Probably not, but it will be (actually it is already) something different than it used to be (not because of them, it is more like the commercialization of the whole thing, as it gradually becomes a normal profession) So women penetration would actually be an indicator, and not the cause. [/might be off] Damm, just disregard it, I was drinking too much beer...
Maybe you should drink more because I do believe you are right on many points with that. I tried to elude to that in my response as well that women tend to have lives outside of work while some of us computer geeks do not. We are passionate about what we do and we are more likely to be the drifters who may land into a family setting amidst the beer and pizza and code. It is a tough profession and like many of MY professors have said, its a lifestyle. I find women don't usually live, or want to live, the lifestyle of a computer tech head.
Psycho is also right in that they have come a long way in the profession already. That I can certainly agree on. Like I was saying earlier, they have certainly made inroads into the multimedia aspect of computing for sure.
Lol, I have a dream: a family sitting together at home coding - of course in total silence with headsets on:) The smallest one maybe with only an abacus. Nah, this would be a psychothriller I think, too bad Sir Hitchcock is not among us anymore.
Lol, I have a dream: a family sitting together at home coding - of course in total silence with headsets on:) The smallest one maybe with only an abacus. Nah, this would be a psychothriller I think, too bad Sir Hitchcock is not among us anymore.
I got a visual.
[CAUTION POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS INCOMING]
Women complain all the time about how they are unequal, they want more rights, etc... Please! We all know that women (at least in the United States) have the same rights, IF NOT MORE THAN, men. Untrue you say? Can a male bring suit against a company for not hiring him because he's a guy? No. Can a male get in trouble for making an off color joke in the prescene of a human being without a penis? Yes. Men and women are not created the same. Thus, there are many differences when comparing the two. Having that said, if there aren't a lot of women in the IT industry, it's because they choose to do something else (like others have already mentioned.)
[/POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS]
two thumbs down for all the whining, if you are good at whatever you do, your gender won't make a difference
As far as I know the male and female brain works in a different way, some problems are easier solved by males (like that when you have to rotate some 3D objects in your mind, etc.), some are by women(what is missing, watch for a lot of things at the moment, and so on). Probably so far we, the penis laurates were in favor in this field, but I can already see things where we are clearly at a disadvantage - like the IDE GUI editors where you have to check a lot of things all the time and if you miss something then the whole thing will be a mess...
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