Women in IT (Aug 3). Online freedom of speech (Aug 5th)

[Colin McGregor]

--- Madison Kelly <linux-5ZoueyuiTZhBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> >> Likewise, some of the women I e-mailed do human
> resources functions 
> >> for the IT field. Of the 10 women I e-mailed, I
> would only consider 4 
> >> to be hard core geeks (women who have been at one
> or more TLUG and/or 
> >> Unix Unanimous meetings).
> >>  
> >>
> > That's going from one extreme to another.
> > 
> > On one hand, I wouldn't consider someone in an HR
> department of an IT 
> > company to have an "IT job", considering that
> person could easily switch 
> > to a similar job at a non-IT company. On the
> other, not everyone working 
> > in IT is a hardcore geek. What about
> documentation, analysis, customer 
> > support, etc.?
> > 
> > - Evan
> 
> If I could add to this thread...
> 
> Another problem, that has very nearly driven me out
> of IT (and may do 
> yet), is the ingrained, nearly subconscious idea
> that women "just don't 
> get IT". An example that really surprised/saddened
> me:

[Snip]
 
> Even women in this industry don't take other women
> seriously.

I would hope that this sort of @#$% is a real rarity
among the real techies (as opposed to the sales droids
/ PR people). 

At one point during the 1980's I briefly worked in
support for a European based PC maker where the
Canadian sales head started HIS career selling sewing
machines. Trust me ANY TIME the sales people don't
know the technology, weird things happen. For example,
one day the sales guy was delighted that a product
placement deal had been done, the firm's PCs were
going to show up in a locally made TV series, what
sort of show wasn't asked until after the deal was
signed... Odd being told to help with a soft core porn
TV show...

One of the best, (and toughest, biggest pain in the
...) instructors I had in college was a woman, and so
I would not make the mistake of assuming women don't
get IT. Just the numbers of women who get IT is
smaller than ideal... 

Regarding the 10 women I forwarded the Women in IT
note on to, here is the rough breakdown in jobs (rough
because some of the women have feet in more than one
camp):

- 2 System Admins
- 2 Consultants
- 2 Headhunters
- 1 UofT Grad. student
- 1 Housewife / programmer
- 1 Technology show PR
- 1 Charity volunteer coordinator

Of further interest of the 10 women, the place of
birth is:

- 4 unknown
- 2 USA
- 1 United Kingdom
- 1 South Africa
- 1 Philippines
- 1 (West) Germany

Of the four unknowns, all four women have accents that
would strongly suggest they were born in Canada/USA,
but... Now I gather 44% of Toronto residents were born
outside Canada, and my list above is a pretty small
sample. So beyond the poor social skills idea, to toss
another idea out, does it help to be born outside
Canada to become a woman techie?

I have heard a theory regarding why Canadians, Jewish
Americans, and African Americans do well in US comedy.
The theory is that each of these groups have some
mental distance from the "mainstream" culture, and so
have an easier time spotting the absurdities inside
mainstream culture (the very close to, but not 110%
part of the mainstream idea). Not sure if I buy the
theory, but I do find it interesting. Is there
something similar for women in technology?

Colin McGregor
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