Women in IT

[stephbg]

This evening at an Australian Computer Society (ACS) meeting I was encouraged to attend the next Women in IT networking event (drinkies) by the WA Branch chair. She happens to be a she.



I wasn't particularly keen. To be honest, I'm not personally affected by sexism in the workplace. I'm one of the guys. I flirt (kinda). I make sexist remarks. I make sexist jokes in any direction. I'm quite comfortable with that and so are my current batch of co-workers. I don't wear makeup and no-one gives a damn, nor do I feel the urge to make more contacts right now. Despite--or perhaps because of--a recent trip to femmeconne I felt that it would be a waste of my time, and I said so quite honestly.

She agreed, and said it was more about general industry talk and a more gentle introduction for younger women to the society than the blokey regular meetings. It's not all beers and barbies, but statistically she had a point.

Suddenly I was interested. Quite recently I'd noticed I was parcelling out a a lot of career advice and I'd realised I'd been missing having young things in the team to teach and mentor. What interested me even more was the prospect of talking to women returning to the workforce (something the industry is desperately keen to encourage) who might be feeling a lack of confidence in their skills.

If there's one thing I appreciate it's the value of the skills required to survive family life in particular, and life in general. I'd love to be able to tell returning IT workers that someone out there recognises that a year or two or five out of the industry chasing after kids is not the deep black hole in the resume it might seem. Out of touch with the technology? Pft. That can be taught again. Been busy acquiring the skills to co-ordinate a bunch of toddlers, house renovations, canteen duty, conventions, fanzines and Tupperware parties? Management here you come.

How could I not appreciate those skills, knowing callistra, babylon_93, fe2h20 and fred_mouse, to name only a few? Or the people like emma_in_oz, redbraidsand mynxii who manage to squeeze a whole lot out of life even without offspring? *

I'm not suggesting that someone who's never been trained or hasn't touched a computer in 10 years can suddenly be dropped into a .Net developer, global systems architect or senior project management role. What I am saying is that I'd welcome the opportunity to welcome and appreciate the skills of women coming back into the fold, and help technology graduates acquire some of the "soft" (ha!) skills so lacking in higher education IT courses. If they want.

(*) Apologies to my many other fabulous friends for neglecting to mention you personally. It's getting late, and I love you all. *hugs*



--
X-posted to stephbg and femmeconne

Comments

[redbraids.livejournal.com]

Let's talk face-to-face about this some time as I belong to an organisation in my area of work which is for women in that field (they are very under-represented).

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you.

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind me identifying you as specifically offspring-less, but given the context it seemed appropriate, if potentially callous.

Have I put my foot in it?

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

No, that's fine.

[fred-mouse.livejournal.com]

heh. does that include the skill of losing ones temper in new and exciting ways?

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

It's a vital management skill. The minions will stop paying attention if you lose your temper in traditional or predictable ways ;-)