![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaunthieOkay, I've always known that I'm a bit of an odd duck. An odd duck in a in a lot of ways, really, but not least in what I do for a living. I read the stats and look around me and I have eyes. I can see, looking around me, that there are far more men in my general line of work than women.
But maybe I've been lucky all my career, or something, because for most of my years in technology, there's almost always been at least one other woman in the same group or job as me. Quite frequently there's been at least one woman in a position of authority. For example, at the first consulting firm I worked at, my immediate boss (and senior consultant) was a woman. In the company I consulted for, one of the two heads of the IT department was a woman, as was the case in the first computer lab I worked at (and of the two at the computing lab, M was the more technical of the two). In my current job, there are other women as well as men doing my job, and while my boss isn't a woman, his boss AND his boss' boss both are. So there have always been women around. Not as many as men, no, never that, but I never had to feel like I was the only one, or lacked for role-models or "if she can do it, I can too" figures in the workplace. (And no, not all of these women were perfect or role-model worthy, but they were there.)
I'm at a big technical conference this week. It's been a pretty good conference, all things considered. One of the events at this conference was a luncheon session called "women in technology." It was a nice, sit-down lunch and panel session. And yes, there were a few guys there, but by and large it was all women. There were, we were told, about 400 women in that room. (Yes, it was a big banquet space.)
400 women, of the 450 female attendees registered for the conference. (This does not count speakers or vendors, mind you, just attendees.)
450 women, out of over 8,000 registered attendees.
*boggles*
That's right. Women make up about 5% of the attendee population at this technical conference. At first I thought that this figure couldn't possibly be right. Women certainly weren't in the majority, but we weren't such a small minority as that, surely?
So I really looked around at my next sessions, and holy guacamole, I think that's about right. Which just stuns me.
The panel discussion wasn't all that reassuring about women entering technical fields, either. Women enrollment in computer science and engineering programs is way down since 1996. The percentage of women completing their programs is down, too. And the percentage of women leaving their technical jobs after just a few years is way up. Women having a complete career in technology - that's down.
Now you have to understand that this doesn't mean women aren't going into technical jobs. I back-doored my way into a technical career, personally; I worked in the computer lab in college, and I've always been good with computers, but my degree certainly wasn't in computer science.
But still...five percent.
I knew I was odd, but I had no idea I was as rare as all that.
But maybe I've been lucky all my career, or something, because for most of my years in technology, there's almost always been at least one other woman in the same group or job as me. Quite frequently there's been at least one woman in a position of authority. For example, at the first consulting firm I worked at, my immediate boss (and senior consultant) was a woman. In the company I consulted for, one of the two heads of the IT department was a woman, as was the case in the first computer lab I worked at (and of the two at the computing lab, M was the more technical of the two). In my current job, there are other women as well as men doing my job, and while my boss isn't a woman, his boss AND his boss' boss both are. So there have always been women around. Not as many as men, no, never that, but I never had to feel like I was the only one, or lacked for role-models or "if she can do it, I can too" figures in the workplace. (And no, not all of these women were perfect or role-model worthy, but they were there.)
I'm at a big technical conference this week. It's been a pretty good conference, all things considered. One of the events at this conference was a luncheon session called "women in technology." It was a nice, sit-down lunch and panel session. And yes, there were a few guys there, but by and large it was all women. There were, we were told, about 400 women in that room. (Yes, it was a big banquet space.)
400 women, of the 450 female attendees registered for the conference. (This does not count speakers or vendors, mind you, just attendees.)
450 women, out of over 8,000 registered attendees.
*boggles*
That's right. Women make up about 5% of the attendee population at this technical conference. At first I thought that this figure couldn't possibly be right. Women certainly weren't in the majority, but we weren't such a small minority as that, surely?
So I really looked around at my next sessions, and holy guacamole, I think that's about right. Which just stuns me.
The panel discussion wasn't all that reassuring about women entering technical fields, either. Women enrollment in computer science and engineering programs is way down since 1996. The percentage of women completing their programs is down, too. And the percentage of women leaving their technical jobs after just a few years is way up. Women having a complete career in technology - that's down.
Now you have to understand that this doesn't mean women aren't going into technical jobs. I back-doored my way into a technical career, personally; I worked in the computer lab in college, and I've always been good with computers, but my degree certainly wasn't in computer science.
But still...five percent.
I knew I was odd, but I had no idea I was as rare as all that.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-06-10 06:42 pm (UTC)Web design, and front end work, in general, OTOH, is considered, I think almost subliminally, as kind of pink collar. (I've had people who were aware that all of my background was in high capacity servers and high performance computing suggest that I'd make a great web designer... um, yeah. Cause you design pages with your tits.)
no subject
Date: 2010-06-10 08:09 pm (UTC)But yes, I am aware that when I say really simple basic things like "ping" and "tracert" and "dropped packets" when talking about a bad network connection, there is almost always a large cognitive disconnect on the other person's part between language and the bumps on my chest. I just was under the apparently misguided impression that things were getting better, not worse - and that women were gaining more presence in the industry across all levels of tech. Or at least that there were *more* of us in the industry at all levels than the last time I was at this conference (2004).
Sigh.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-10 11:19 pm (UTC)And this represents the profession how?
--J
no subject
Date: 2010-06-11 01:54 pm (UTC)Either way, that sucks rocks. And no, I would agree that the disparity in gender pretty much guarantees a lack of genuine representation of all the neeeds of the community.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-11 03:35 am (UTC)...when I say really simple basic things like "ping" and "tracert" and "dropped packets" when talking about a bad network connection, there is almost always a large cognitive disconnect on the other person's part...
If it's any consolation, when you say that stuff around me, the only disconnect on my part is between my ears and my brain. ;)