Warning, foul language ahead.
I don’t like this recent (greek) trend of gender separation in tech. At all.
I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again: there’s no male or female in technology. You either are a geek or you aren’t. Male geeks may be different from female geeks – but they have something in common: geekdom. Celebrating male or female geekdom strikes me as highly sexist, all respect preserved to those involved.
When your female nature takes over your geeky nature, guess what: you’re not really a geek. Maybe a showoff. But we’re not talking about WCs here, we’re talking about tech. And I have a newsflash for you, dear readers: most women don’t like tech. At all.
Why? Blame our social structure. Noone expects from women to use that left part of their brains. Noone expects from women to fix their computers themselves – that’s a job for their (son|colleague|boyfriend), right? Most technically proficient girls are considered freaks of nature – and surely women can’t be as smart as men in this ‘tech’ thing, no?
There’s your reason.
You complain about the low rates of female presence in tech jobs? For Christ’s sake, fight it. Work to reverse the numbers. Don’t just whine and then go home and tell all your (Facebook|MySpace|Twitter) friends about it. Jesus.
You want the same money as your male colleagues? Fuckin’ work for it. If you work enough already and you still don’t get the same treatment, feel free to leave, your boss sucks.
You got sexually harassed at work? Report the jackass and leave – immediately. If you complain about unemployment and lack of jobs, fine, stay. Your pride goes below your bank balance in your priorities, I guess.
You think male geeks are sexist? Oh boy, you’ll never want to know what I think about women-only clubs.
Overall, work, work, work. Get better, always. Just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean you’ll get it easier. Enough with the whining already.
Does all this offend you? Fine. It’s true though, and you know it.
12 comments on this post
acidsmile #1
06.Mar.09
Would you not agree that we have to work twice as hard?
Would you not agree that the “boob factor” as I like to call it always casts a shadow that our geekness and skills have to overcome to make us shine?
In my present job I’m quite lucky, but the fact that I carry my balls on my chest and not between my legs has many a time previously made people treat me different.
And yeah I agree about all women clubs!
Sugar #2
06.Mar.09
@acidsmile
The boob factor lasts for what? Some days? Some months? It should fade till then.
When it’s down to work it’s skills that matter. Not boobs. At least boobs shouldn’t matter, or else someone’s in the wrong kind of job.
kmitchell #3
06.Mar.09
@sugarenia what I’m about to say u know it already.
Distinguishing tech related things (a job, a project, a whatever) is like talking about “male” and “female” restrooms.
No tech is gender oriented or targeted. And if u think of tech or science this way, maybe the most u can get out of technology is your electrically charged …epilator (pun intended)
Randolpho #4
06.Mar.09
I can’t believe I’m dropping lurker status to comment on *this* topic when I normally just follow your blog for web standards and accessibility opinions, but here goes:
“You got sexually harassed at work? Report the jackass and leave – immediately. If you complain about unemployment and lack of jobs, fine, stay. Your pride goes below your bank balance in your priorities, I guess.”
I disagree with close to 90% of this paragraph. In fact, the only thing I agree with is “report the jackass”. The rest I think you’re dead wrong on.
Now granted, I’m male and you must have a better perspective, but I don’t believe for an instant that a woman who has been sexually harassed at work should have to go through the crap wade that is finding a new job just because her boss/coworker is a jackass. Now, granted, it’ll be difficult to stay, but it’s probably just as difficult to go — I only have experience with the latter.
So fight it, hell yes. Report the guy, yes. But leave immediately? I dunno about that. I think that decision is a *lot* more complicated than you make it out to be.
Sorry, I realize I’m being pedantic about a small off-topic point on your post, but I think it matters. The rest of your post I actually quite agree with. A geek is a geek, regardless of gender.
HitMan #5
06.Mar.09
Respect.-
To be a more active commenter beyond respect I will say one-two things more.
The “boob factor” that acidsmile was referred to doesn’t exist for me in a way. It’ s complicated. For sure it might exists in lower position and surely not tech related.
Most Geeks are shy, administration staff on the other hand… well.
@acidsmile: Sure, maybe sometimes you have to work twice as hard to get respect, but doesn’t the opposite exist? Because of your “beautiful” gender to be treated better?
Same thing would go for every male based on age. Me, 22 with an urban style versus a 30y old developer/project manager with preppy style. Been there, done that. No respect whatsoever for my work and saying. Thank god I am a good speaker and “transmissibility” in my sayings [ OK, thinking Greek here, you got me i hope ] or else I would have guttered off.
I will end my comment saying that i had the “fortune”;”luck”; to see CVs and even interview girls for our Company from the age of 19. It was a generic position with limited “call-center” responsibilities but something more like a trainee [ paid trainee ] into the world of Internet Services and Graphic design.
What I saw?! You wouldn’t believe. Someone else would have hired the 2nd girl i interviewed with ECDL as her primary skill, dressed as for clubbing, pretty, but with no actual learning thirst. For sure.
All fields need women, not because of the sex beauty, but for the different way of thinking, for the creativity, and so on. I would LOVE to have a geek PHP developer next to me who responds to Maria, Elena, etc. It would make me work better just because of that.
Sugar #6
06.Mar.09
@Randolpho
Glad that I made you drop the lurker status
Regardless your opinion, I’m still quite firm on what I said on sexual harassment. Especially if the offender is someone above you, hierarchy-wise. Reporting and leaving is the only option I see.
I sincerely hope this is not such a frequent case nowadays, though.
Sugar #7
06.Mar.09
Oh, forgot:
@HitMan
That’s EXACTLY my point. Our social structure makes it so much easier for good-looking women, which efficiently shatters the ambitions of the rest of us.
porcupine #8
06.Mar.09
Great post and the comments are even better!
Let me show another side of this reality.
Yes, the “boob factor” changes it all. Each time you talk we pause as long as you are a real geek and remain a real woman. We love you, we envy you, we want you to be around us all the time.
bezalel #9
06.Mar.09
@Hitman It feels like you are a cheerful and kind man, and I don’t say this because I agree with your opinion.
@Sugarenia
First, thank you for giving me the chance to express an opinion about this matter. I think your post was powerful and refreshing. And propably enjoyable for the girls that share the same views with you. But not for me. I feel we’re following “icons” that cause us to be disoriented. It’s not a matter of sex. That’s REALLY REALLY not the matter.
It’s a matter of free markets and equal opportunity. It’s business. And it’s strategy and then, tactics. Society is evolving. You have to make things happen or you’ll watch things happen or you will wonder “What did just happened?”.
“Work, work, work” ? No, no, no. A misconception. THINK, THINK, THINK I would say. And think fast. Then, ACT.
It’s not an ego play. It’s a business play.
Lea Verou #10
06.Mar.09
Nice post.
I’ve never really faced a problem at work that had to do with my gender (I don’t consider positive surprise about it a problem).
Most problems that I have faced that had to do with my gender in conjunction with my geekiness were outside work: I get extremely mad when I hear morons say that there aren’t any women who love programming or are actually good at it and similar stupid axioms that they came up with. Luckily I’ve never worked with such a moron. By the way, a good argument for these morons is that the first programmer ever was a woman (Ada Augusta Lovelace) and that the first compiler ever was written by a woman, the same woman that coined the term “bug” (Grace Hopper).
I greatly agree with you about the reasons that there aren’t many female geeks out there. Let me add another one: Geeks aren’t considered sexy and most women grow up trying to be sexy, not smart (sadly).
By the way, I think that stereotyping the geeks is as discrimatory as stereotyping women or any other group of people. And both you and some of the commenters are guilty for it
Sugar #11
06.Mar.09
@bezalel
I think (pun intended) THINK is a given before WORK
@Lea
Not stereotyping, just generalizing. There are always exceptions. I’m talking about my perceived majority.
george tziralis #12
06.Mar.09
In my humble opinion and very limited experience, the less you work the more you complain, this is the case and applies also in female (so-called or not) geeks.