Sisters untie

[stephbg]

Got one of those odd e-mails out of the blue today, asking if I would address the ACS Women's group (ACS-W) in August as a fill-in speaker. It appears I am being hoist on my own petard for insisting that such gatherings have a speaker at all, but I'm struggling to come up with a topic that will be entertaining, informative and skewed to the female demographic. I am unaccustomed to making that distinction in a speaking engagement.



It's a pretty vague brief: 30-35 minutes of presentation on something IT-related of interest to women. Possibly the story of my career, since I'm a girl; I can write my own ticket apparently, but I can hardly talk about me for half an hour. Well, I could but that would hardly constitute professional development for anyone else. Thing is, I'm not especially keen on gender issues, and have pretty successfully managed to avoid them my whole professional life. That either makes me the worst person to address ACS-W or the best. I'm leaning towards worst.

I don't have personal experience of fighting the glass ceiling, or even noticing that I've been discriminated against. I've avoided the whole child production and maintenance issue. I've had plenty of Big Scary Blokes treat me like a Girl (hello Western Australia) but I've never let that put me off. In the process I think I've managed to escape the twin traps of becoming a ball-crusher or a female Bloke. But what's worked for me is unlikely to work for anyone else. My favourite former minion who went on to become Totally Awesome had more than a year's exposure to my methods, but I didn't exactly work up a curriculum in that time.

If I can't call upon personal experience, what about general feminist theory as applied to the IT industry and workplace? That sounds like No Fun At All. I could do it, but I can hardly give a presentation on a topic I wouldn't want to sit through myself. Basic gender differences in psychology? Why women make better project managers than men? Differences in learning styles for software training? No. No. No. No. I refuse to generalise on the basis of gender! I'm all for anthropology but social psych gives me the irrits. It frankly annoys me that there's an ACS-W group in the first place! Put me in front of them and I'll probably say exactly that and get lynched for all the wrong reasons.

I like equal rights, I really do, but I'm no kind of spokesperson for them. I dream of a meritocracy, which by neccessity includes political skill. I personally prefer people who can do things and make things, but people skills are important skills too. Those skills are independent of gender. Did I mention perhaps that this is a dream?

The most important message I have is that We Are All Individuals. The second most important message is that no-one should listen to me for life or career advice. Did that sound like advice? I can't deliver advice. I don't want to deliver advice. Don't listen to me. I particularly dread the idea of getting into a very public academic and/or sociopolitical debate about feminism. My ideas are not well formed. My feet are enormous. I know too many people who do it better. I just like to make things. Leave me alone!

I haven't yet accepted the invitation to speak. Despite the notes of panic I'd quite like to--it's good practice for Swancon panels--but I am distinctly afraid of what I might say. And then I think, ah, what the hell. How bad could it be?

Um. Help?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/doctor_k_/]

I'd just run with talking about a topic that interests you. Forget the whole gender issue, just go with "I find this thing kinda neat!". Talks are most interesting when the speaker is passionate about the topic, and when it's something you're not really familiar with, but that you may be able to apply to your own situation.

[transcendancing.livejournal.com]

I agree with this wholeheartedly, talk about something you think is shiny that other people in your field will find shiny :)

[leecetheartist.livejournal.com]

Would they be interested in examples in Using Their Powers for Good?

For example, using their professional or other talents for charity or volunteer work?

You could talk about how you've used your skills in arranging the Swancon art show, and how you were considering designing a chart for the horse identification issue at the stables. Go back to your journal entry on that, there's lot of good material there.

I'd be interested in listening to a talk like that.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

Why do you have to talk about women's issues?
I'm confused.
Did they email you and specifically ask for a talk on women's issues, gender in the workplace, or anything like that?

If they did, then I understand your worries.

But if they didn't specifically ask about women or gender issues, then just do whatever you'd do for a bunch of men.

My eyebrows are stuck at 'frowning with confusion mode.'
:D

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

There's a definite request for something "of interest to women" I find faintly offensive. The poor lads are *trying* to be inclusive and in theory this is an opportunity to educate them, but I don't have a solid 30 minutes of that in me. Not in two weeks!

[callistra.livejournal.com]

OH. So the guys will be at the talk?

Maybe just talk about normal stuff anyway, since that is important to you and other women?

*hugs*

Good luck, this sounds like a sticky situation.

[rabbit1080.livejournal.com]

I reckon I'd be entertained and informed to hear you speak about your approaches to glass ceilings, wrangling Big Scary Blokes in the workplace, meritocracy, people-skills-independent-of-gender and other issues that you touched on in this post.

Can I come and listen?

[transcendancing.livejournal.com]

This too is awesome advice!

[(Anonymous)]

I really liked what you wrote here. If you *have* to speak on a gender issue, why not use this post as your speech? It has to be personal, otherwise it won't 'sing' and have your passion behind it. Sure, you can talk about others encountering glass ceilings, but only in the context that you HAVEN'T (as far as you're aware -- sometimes it's more insidious than obvious, like being rejected at resume time before you can even get your foot in the door).

Or if the gender thing is still required (maybe you should speak about WHY they want a gender focus and WHY they chose a female to present it???), perhaps you can look at how subtle things can perpetuate gender roles (like my recent blog post on logos and fonts: http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/logos-and-fonts-channeling-my-inner-feminist/ -- that still makes me angry!), or the Twitter backchannel at conferences and the like that have objectified the female speaker (e.g. http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/conferences-and-twitter-backchannels/).

But I'd be spinning it around and focusing on WHY there's no presentation on male gender issues in the tech workplace.

--Rhonda