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Techtech:
Looking at your profile you are waaaaay too cute to be technical. All the best female techies are 350lb hound dogs....... :D
Seriously though, as an employer I can tell you that my female employees are by far the best at dealing with the end-luser. My male employees rush in-fix it in milliseconds and rush out. If the user is there they have no idea what was done so they can't help themselves in the future and if they aren't there they will never know that the problem was addressed - I'm pretty guilty of that myself..... :o The females take a bit more time, try to show the user, (in the nicest possible way), what a screw-up they are and leave the user feeling all warm and fuzzy. If the user isn't there they leave a note or follow up much better than the men.
Furthermore, my female employees are much better administratively then my male geeks. The males are so "techie" and "geeky" that, for a large part, they don't function as well as the females in situations where solving a problem requires more understanding and simplicity than trying to explain the intimate details of the IP stack to a group of glassy eyed non-tech managers.
Largely, for those reasons, my deputy is a female...... And she is technically adept.
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techtech... just a quick word of warning.. Somehow, if the users files end up deleted or changed, it will end up your fault. Trust me. Even if you stand there and watch the user make the changes and save them and a day later he complains about it, they will end up your fault... its inevetiable. So even if you don't give a crap about the company or its employees, you may wanna consider that...
This has nothing to do with being female or male, this has to do with being the computer geek.
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Women into technology are incredibly sexy.... I'd love a computer geek girlfriend. And of course girls are just as good as guys, in some cases better.
The problem is society... a lot of old fashioned ideals dont die easily. And a lot of girls get it ingrained in their minds that these are guy jobs, and a lot of them don't want to differ from the norm. So they're stuck doing traditional jobs, because of what they're parents, or friends have told them.
In my highschool in my gr 11 programming course, there were 2 girls, in my gr 12 programming course, there was 1 girl. In my CCNA courses, there were 3 girls first semester, 2 dropped out before the semester was over, one finished the semester butnever came back for the second semester. The reason these people left, their friends bugged them about taking a class meant for guys. My HS actually instituted a seperate shop course for girls, because no girls would take shop, and the girls shop course was supposed to be wood working, but all they did was interior decorating.
Right now I'm in college, Computer System Techology is what i'mtaking, last semester there were 108 people in my program, and 7 girls, this semesterthere's about 88 people and 6 girls... Men still dominate the field but only in numbers, very soon we'll see that change.
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I guess I just don't understand the mind set that some women have. I took shop in high school. I'm an avid shotgun shooter (yes, I reload my own shells) and I work (a little bit) on my own car! I just changed my brakes last weekend.
Personally that stuffs a lot more fun then getting my damn hair done.
that's just my opinion. . .I could be wrong. . .-Dennis Miller
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Nice one. Unfortunately in this world, for every smart technologically-able woman, there are 10 who either don't have a clue about technology, or know little bits that just cause problems for themselves or others. I wish there were more like you techtech. It would make my life a hell of a lot easier when explaining things. I'm not trying to be sexist though. There are guys out there who have as much knowledge of computers and technology as you can fit on a stamp. However, I have to say that so far in my life, I have come across a hell of a lot more women who are technologically-behind than men.
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I must agree with Karnesh and many others here.
Women can be just as technologically capable as men. Men can be just as technologically inept as any woman. Technology is one of those fields where physical prowess makes no difference (especially now with flat screens that wiegh 10 lbs vs the old Unix monitors that required Arnold Schwarteneger to move :p ). The difference is attitute, aptitude, interest, training, and experience. In most societies men are more encouraged to show interest in technology than women. Therefore the attitude of men is supported by society, the interest is encouraged, training is encouraged, and experience is easier to get. This breeds more of an attitude that men are better than women when the underlying capability to be good (aptitude) has never been shown to favor one sex over the other.
As for being good techs I have seen both sexes succeed and both fail. Much of this is the attitude towards the person. Again I am going to fall back on stereotypes. Men have a tendency to be more task oriented. They see the problem, work and conquer the problem and move on to the next problem. Since the problem is usually perceived as what is wrong with the computer this means the user is often left with no new knowledge. Women tend to relate problems with underlying causes more. They see stronger connections. So when the problem is due to obvious user error there is a greater tendency for them to work on the real underlying problem (the user) and not just fix the immediate one. Being a teacher (male) I have a great tendency to spend time with the use educating them as well as fixing the problem. If there is time, and willingness, I will even have them do the key strokes, mouse movements while explaining what is happening.
The only place I have seen a distinct difference is in the phone response area. For level 1 support (initial contact and assessment) women hired with more limited technological knowledge seem to achieve much better performance and have higher customer satisfaction than men. Men with more technological knowledge seem to do even worse. My theory is that the women have a tendency to think about the person on the other end, are more polite, and more understanding. Men with less knowledge seem to react from a feeling of inadequacy and those with more seem to be harsher and less tactful. Please note there are exceptions to all of these. In this area though my old company was far more eager to hire competent, inexperienced women who had nice personalities than more experienced techs who could solve more but tended to cause customer complaints. Level 2 and 3 technicians were hired for their knowledge but the initial contact was only meant to filter, calm, and assess and here the women were far more successful than most men.
Basically I not only like seeing women in technological careers I also respect that they have gone against the flow. In this same manner I honor my brother who followed his dream and is now one of the best danged nurses you could find. Technology does not make women less feminine but society still works against them. Similarly it doesn't make my Harley Riding, father of five, brother (who is actually far more macho than his computer geek engineer younger brother) any less manly just because he is a nurse.
Just my opinion ..... I may be wrong .... But I doubt it. Sodamoca5's Ammendment to Dennis Miller.
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Best manager I ever worked for is (drumroll plz)... a woman.
She was so nurturing and really gave her subordinates a sense of empowerment, instead of having to run everything thru the manager's office first. And totally *sunny* when the pressure was on (which it always was). Her crew would bend over backwards getting goals accomplished and exceeded. A great leader and team builder.
As far as guys being "unemotional", as mentioned in a previous reply: are you kidding or something? I and my associates, and every guy I consider to be a 'guy', cuss enough to make a sailor blush. Sometimes my proclivity for invective Germanic gutturals astounds even me. It's a nice stress-breaker to really give a recalcitrant Dell P.O.S. a good tongue lashing -- especially since it might be injurious to one's career to give such treatment to the 'certified user' who created the problem in the first place...
I personally prefer -- best if the self-described 'superuser' is in earshot -- the long, drawn out form "Muuu-thaa-f*&%-errr!" (or expletive of your choice, I know 'em all and have made up a number of new ones) in a very loud voice. I then turn sheepishly and apologize (depending on how blue the user normally works the room), feigning having caught a finger on a sharp edge...
So, guys 'unemotional', huh? I think there is still a long way to go, fighting against preconceived notions about race and sex.
Later.
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odd... all i see is womyn ( i say womyn as not to promote having the term "man" or "men" in the word) growing in acceptance, although there are way too many wanna be alpha-males out there trying to strut their stuff. now this may be true in games such as american football, but definitley in the work-place or any area that requires knowledge, social skilz, or just regular skilz, womyn have shown they compare equally. for more information see www.now.org
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Techtech, the next time some guy insults your intelligence, remind them:
"Just because you have one doesn't mean you should act like one".
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The society we live in have set the standards for the sexist attitudes that women in all technical fields face. Until society accepts that women can be technical in nature, and not just with computers, you will always run into it.
As a highly technical automotive woman, I face riducule and ignorance, not just from men, in my field all the time. I find the best way to slap them in the face so to speak, is not to use my temper but to use my skill to show them that they have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. I never get angry, I just prove my worth simply by doing what I do best, my job. Way more often than not, I gain the respect from the individual and feel as though I am doing all women a small favor by making some sexist jerk rethink his/her inaccurate, outdated opinion.
Congrats to all the women here that stand up for themselves by not letting a male dominated world stop them from doing what they want to do.
