From Princess to Goddess: Female Success in IT (O'ReillyNet) [LWN.net]

Molly Holzschlag writes this article from O'Reilly's Women in Technology series. "Ridiculous as it may sound, my experiences as an emotional, sometimes hysterical, highly paid, and astonishingly well-liked female in IT are perhaps somewhat unique. Now, don't get me wrong, I've met my fair share of gender (and other) bias, but I am certain that strong, authentic voices that steer clear of power plays and agenda-wars can actually skyrocket a woman's career rather than harm it. It's common knowledge that the IT workforce has been male-dominated for most of its life. However, this is clearly beginning to change as more women start careers in some aspect of either computer science or in the larger, more integrated world of the Web."

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From Princess to Goddess: Female Success in IT (O'ReillyNet)

Posted Sep 19, 2007 11:41 UTC (Wed) by forthy (guest, #1525) [Link]

IMHO the main reason why there are so few females in IT is that it's not socially accepted to work there - you are a geek if you work in anything related to IT. Females tend to care more about social acceptance, and high-demanding jobs with high social acceptance (like lawyers and medics) often have slight majority of females today, at least in the younger generation. I can't imagine that you meet less testosterone power-play within lawyers or medics - all I know is that it's even worse, hierarchies are much stricter, and honesty is not rewarded at all.

So the fact that some women find it a place to build their career in indicates that social acceptance of IT is changing. If that's true, it's becoming just another high-quality, high-paid job, which people are choosing rather for the career than for the topic. Quite some people already do this, you won't see them in a W3C work group, or deeply involved in open source, either. So for open source, this doesn't help a bit - we won't get more women, since working for the joy of it and very indirect reward apparently now is not socially accepted, not even for women.

From Princess to Goddess: Female Success in IT (O'ReillyNet)

Posted Sep 21, 2007 1:24 UTC (Fri) by sharkscott (guest, #38015) [Link]

So for open source, this doesn't help a bit - we won't get more women, since working for the joy of it and very indirect reward apparently now is not socially accepted, not even for women.

Unfortunately for the most part the above statement is correct. I have met very few people who can wrap their heads around doing something just for the love of it, or because of the technological moral high ground Open Source is based on. Only my close friends and a few of my family members understand and accept why I do what I do. I have never met a Woman who was impressed or understanding of why I love what I do. No Status? No Money? No Way..

From Princess to Goddess: Female Success in IT (O'ReillyNet)

Posted Sep 22, 2007 11:29 UTC (Sat) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Well, I don't meet many people of either sex yet I've found it much easier
to get across the exhilarating voluntary-for-the-love-of-it aspect to
women than to men.

YMMV, I guess.

From Princess to Goddess: Female Success in IT (O'ReillyNet)

Posted Sep 27, 2007 14:12 UTC (Thu) by forthy (guest, #1525) [Link]

Yes, it's socially accepted (especially for women) if you voluntarily work for your church or the hospital or some similar charity. Now, if we told women, that we voluntarily work for the "Church of Emacs", might that work? Would they believe that this is charity?

From Princess to Goddess: Female Success in IT (O'ReillyNet)

Posted Sep 19, 2007 15:23 UTC (Wed) by peace (guest, #10016) [Link]

Women need to stop grouping men together as some sort of homogeneneous social artifice. Back in the day it was socially outcast males who lead and developed the computer industry. These people were outcast by the men around them and also by the women, who together formed the homogeneneous social structure that marginalized these nerds to the periphery of social life.

Nerdy as they were, they found power in knowledge and in the case of technology that power translated into real social power that became the envy of men and women the world over. It was Revenge of the Nerds for real.

The author spends some time discussing the "old boys" network. There is no "old boys" network in tech. You can not create a protocol smoking cigars and downing martinis. There may be an old-boys network in management but these are the same folks who existed before computers became the next greatest thing. They make their money off of being socially acceptable. And they hate/fear/envy nerds just the same as always.

Kind Regards

From Princess to Goddess: Female Success in IT (O'ReillyNet)

Posted Sep 20, 2007 12:20 UTC (Thu) by RobSeace (subscriber, #4435) [Link]

It was Revenge of the Nerds for real.

I think you mean Triumph of the Nerds... ;-) (Highly recommended for anyone who hasn't seen it, BTW... Even at the inflated price, the DVD is totally worth it, IMHO...)