The Crap I Put Up with Because I’m a Girl in IT
“Send Susanne to the meeting wearing a mini skirt, that will seal the deal.” I’ve been told stuff like this many times. Along with tons of blonde jokes and jokes about women. Some of it is funny, I’ve got a sense of humor and I don’t take myself very seriously.
I’m surrounded by men on a daily basis and I like that. I love my coworkers. We have a lot of fun, a very casual tone and lots of laughs. I find it easy to get along with men. But I’ve experienced some unwanted things while working in this industry. And yes, I’m a girl, not a woman. I don’t know how to adult yet.
Thanks for teaching me
People I meet at tech seminars will sometimes mention stuff like: big data, UX, IOT or solar technology. And then they start mansplaining. As if there’s no way a girl can know this or be interested in technology. I just nod my head and say something like
“Thanks, bro!”
Are you the receptionist?
When some people see the ID card around my neck and notice the name of the company, they ask me if I’m a receptionist there. Like that’s the only job a girl could have in that kind of company. If a male coworker and I go to a meeting with potential new clients, many of them will direct all their questions to him, and not to both of us.
Here’s two situations that I find especially annoying:
Situation one:
I was volunteering at the local library. They offered free help with computers and technical issues. I was the IT person that would help the visitors. I was the only volunteer and I walked over to a man that had waited for a minute or two.
Me: “Hi there. Are you here for the computer help?”
Man: “Yep. When is HE going to be here to help me?”
Me: I don’t know what guy you’re waiting for, but I ‘m the volunteer and I’m here to help you. What seems to be the problem with your computer?”
Man: “I’m not sure you know how to fix this though. It’s a real complex problem.”
He looked at me with a disappointed look and he must’ve thought I was the guy’s secretary. To his surprise, I had fixed the computer within a few minutes. He didn’t thank me, he just walked away. Luckily, all the other people that showed up to get help were super sweet and thankful.
Woo-hoo! Look at me, winning an award at work - in spite of being a girl!! Luckily, my company doesn't mind that I'm a girl.
Situation two:
I posted some pictures of me and a friend, who’s also a girl, here on Steemit. The post wasn't about anything related to technology. One of the replies on the post was something like this:
“I love how completely non-tech people are using Steemit now. Welcome”
This was a friendly and nice comment, he meant well. But it’s just funny that he's assuming that neither of us have a background from technology. I’ve been working as a system responsible in an IT company and spent my spare time fixing peoples computers. I work with digital marketing, I’m in the process of learning more about programming. I’m interested in crypto currency and I’m currently reading a book about solar energy. My friend is a web editor and she is very skilled on the old personal computer. Why would he just assume that my friend and I weren’t tech people?
The post wasn't about technology, but would he write the same on a post where two boys went on a hike?
I’m sure he’d be surprised if he checked my browser history and found out this is my most visited website.
I’m not a feminist.
I'm pro-equality.
I’m sick of being underestimated, just because I’m not a boy.
I met a male nurse that told me that a female patient said this to me: “Please send in a woman instead, they care more about patients and men are assholes.” Being an asshole or a non-tech person has nothing to do with your gender. It has to do with the way you’re raised and what you’re interested in.
Here’s the song of the day, a Norwegian band this time.
My next post will not be angry, I promise.
Peace out!
Susanne
Oh damn! I never expected such an innocent comment of mine may inspire you to write such a response. For those who dont know what @susanne is talking about, I'm quoting my comment below with source...
Source: https://steemit.com/travel/@susanne/behind-the-scenes-pictures-from-making-a-steemit-post-feat-laivi#@moonguy/re-susanne-behind-the-scenes-pictures-from-making-a-steemit-post-feat-laivi-20160814t191840744z
Trust me, I have absolutely nothing against ladies or their intelligence. It is just the case that being involved with bitcoin for so long, I have seen very few women in the crypto economy. As a BitcoinTalk veteran, I have seen long drawn threads like...
Still, instead of using the word non-tech, I should have used non-crypto.
Steem is changing this scenario pretty fast. Ladies from all walks like modelling, traveler, house-wife, writer all are on board at Steem. I just wanted to share the cheer with you...
Hello, again @moonguy. I never thought you had anything against women :) I did write "This was a friendly and nice comment, he meant well." So I know that you did mean any harm. Non-crypto would have been a very accurate description for my friend and I. :) Your comment was just an example to prove a point.
In any case, I think, u never like my comments. Because, I never see any upvote from u. :-/
I'd say @susanne is rather an intelligent woman. The article from where the comment was quoted, made her $102.34. Whereas the article she has prepared now has already made her over $1,828.65. It is the person and not the gender that matters. And she has proven her worth ;-)
Susanne,
Great writeup and glad to see you on here.
I've personally met very few women who are naturally inclined to technology. Not to say they're not 'inclined to learning or understanding' technology, simply that they don't care about it 'as long as the internet works'. :)
Thank you for the nice words. Actually, my friends @svk convinved me to join Steemit. I think coding should be taught in elemtary school! I have a couple of girlfriends that are into tech as well, but not many. :)
I reached the realization at the age of 30 that being able to code for this generation will be my generations equivalent of being able to type.
Good on ya! Keep writing here. Followed :)
Having just spent 3 months working in an IT company, turns out I am the only one in the place who can actually touch type! How this happens, I don't know.
I like ur post, keep it up
So true. I wish I had taken up some classes at school. I wouldn't feel so ignorant now.
Ha - I learned to code in BASIC on a TRS-80 before elementary school. I like that idea of learning it in elementary school. Now am getting back into it because it looks like an occupation that is rewarding, and kind of fun.
You're trying to blame men for why they treat women a certain way, but it's not the man's fault at all. If you want someone to blame, look no further than your fellow women. The cold hard truth is, there's an overabundance of bimbos who are obsessed with things like fashion, shoes, instagram, etc.
Unless you feel like going to teach other women to not be bimbos and having a giant portion of women act like this, then people will always stereotype women in such a manner. That's not going to happen anytime soon, because being a bimbo with good lucks and an IQ of 2 is the path of least resistance for reproduction in natural selection, so nature cranks them out on a never ending assembly line.
But don't let me stop you from trying to partake in the leftist narrative of blame the white man for everything possible.
Even if every other woman in the world was a bimbo who cared only about fashion, shoes, and instagram, she'd still deserve to be treated as an individual and not pre-judged based on her gender. I wonder if you would tell a black person that the reason they are pre-judged is that there are so many other black people who abandon their children or commit crimes.
Yup. Also, there's not more stupid women than stupid men. In fact, there are more men below the first standard deviation in IQ than women. Variance in men is greater, the average IQ is the same. Women do better in school.
This myth of stupid women is perpetrated by the patriarchy, some women act dumber than they are to fit the stereotype.
It depends on what and how you are being taught. Women are more submissive to authority, so you can put them in any type of class and they're more likely to willingly be brainwashed by whoever is speaking to them. A lot of grades are based around telling the teacher what they subjectively want to hear. Things like math where it's not just subjective brainwashing and regurgitation of whatever the teacher wants to hear seem to be dominated by males though.
Right, they have to be treated equally because are times that woman are more wiser and intelligent than man. The instinct of a woman is different from a man instinct, they have their own way of handling things and situation that man could not do. Yeah, there are those who only knew fashion and beauty but has no brain but it makes no difference because such qualities also existed on men.
Wisdom has nothing to do with gender, race or culture. But deviating from the norms of these categories can be a very socially risky business. I am male but I get into all kinds of trouble because of my anti-authoritarian attitude and faith in reason, and more superficially, my somewhat effeminite manner and appearance.
For the feminists here, this is nothing to do with 'patriarchy'. This man vs woman thing is one of the oldest divide and conquer tactics ever employed. Old vs Young is another one. Gay vs Straight, the list is endless, and meaningless. Individuals might be categorisable but we are as unique as the structure of snowflakes and more than the numbers of even a short 256 bit cryptographic key. This collectivist mentality does nothing but damage people and ultimately hurt everyone.
You're implying that stereotypes are NOT useful for surviving the natural selection process, when this type of learned behavior is EXTREMELY useful in natural selection. You're trying to claim up is down. It's not.
Quite the reverse, I understand that these things are very useful. That's why it's so important to make this moral point. As a society, we don't want to make one person's life miserable because of the choices and actions of people who happen to share their skin color or gender. Even where that is to our benefit. We make the moral choice to give up the benefits of stereotyping because we consider the costs to be unacceptable, largely because they disproportionately fall on completely innocent people.
I don't think you know who you're dealing with here. You used the word "we" constantly. There is no we. When you use the word "we" in this manner, you're implying you're the moral authority or father figure of some imaginary collective and everyone else needs to conform to your behavior. There is no we and there is no collective.
This is a common leftist trick to try and indoctrinate people into Marxism. This stuff might work against feeble minded children, but I'm not some guy off the movie idiocracy you can beat with such primitive tricks.
Let's talk about the reason you use this propaganda. You have the last name Katz, an Ashkenazi Jewish name. Jews have evolved to use collectivism as a group evolutionary strategy. It's a well documented characteristic:
http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Jewish_group_evolutionary_strategy
The other fact is that you push Marxist collectivism because you see homogeneous civilizations as a threat to your minority demographic. Your motivations are entirely selfish. You're literally trying to brainwash people to benefit yourself. None of it is real. It's all fake, self serving propaganda.
The "we" you speak of is actually "you" and your interests, not mine or anyone else's. So while you are masquerading as some type of white knight out to help all of humanity, your behavior is entirely selfish in nature.
I'm not blaming men, and as you can see in the end, I also speak on behalf of men that are treated in a similar manner. It's all our faults. Not men, not women. We're all responsible for this.
Back in the day when I was a full-time stay-at-home dad, I sometimes had women compliment me on knowing how to change a nappy (diaper) as if it was some kind of miracle, or, in a situation where I could offer assistance, they'd say something like, "You're a man, what would you know about children?" The fact is, there are skills that aren't apparent just by looking, so assumptions based on most likely probability are perhaps almost inevitable.
It might not necessarily be the fault of the individual man,but it is a result of a sexist society.
A sexist society is arguably a result of biological realities. By which I mean that the fundamental differentiation between male and female humans is that females are the ones who grow and give birth to babies and males are the ones who merely create them. This has given rise to many less than equitable interpretations of a woman's 'place' in society.
not sure the word bimbo is appropriate in this conversation.
@susanne. You are flagging anyone who gives you any criticism in the comment section. They are not abusing you, simply challenging you. This is a really, REALLY uncool use of the flagging system.
I'm a female in IT too. I haven't had those experiences yet, but I can tell you that I get a long with the men a lot more than the women!
Hopefully, you won't have to! Most IT people just appreciate having some girls around :)
There are lots of woman who like to stick with men, nothing malicious but pure friendship.
I think it is completely natural to not expect women in IT/Engineering for a variety of reasons, and how folks allow themselves to be bothered (even a little) by others having perfectly natural responses is odd to me. First, as you're aware, this is an overwhelmingly male dominated subject matter. That alone should be enough to be unbothered by assumptions regarding being a woman in IT. Secondly, lets ask why that is? I believe it is because women typically pick more personally rewarding careers partly because women are more in touch with their emotions and have better developed social intelligence compared to men. In contrast, men overwhelmingly select their career based on a combination of "What makes the most money" and "Am I able to do this task successfully", because at the end of the day men get jobs to gain resources to attract a mate. At the end of the day, thats the underlying motivation behind anything any man does really...
Take pleasure in being dismissed or treated differently, not pain. I'm a pretty successful entrepreneur having started an IT Engineering firm. I'm young, and young looking for my age at that. When I go to the bank and get in the business services line I relish in showing up unshowered, unshaved, and wearing ratty shorts and an old t-shirt just because I enjoy the assumptions people make regarding that. lol I may be weird though
I totally agree with many of your arguments here actually. And it doesn't ruin my life, it's just annoying. But do you think it's okay for the guy I was helping to say "I'm not sure you can fix this, being a girl and all?"
Oh I know it's not ruining your life... You'd have switched careers if it was. What I'm saying is don't even let it annoy you. Im saying learn to embrace it. Love it. I've always done my best when someone or many believed I couldn't. Use others' doubt as fuel for your own internal fire. That's really all you can do with it anyway... Or let it annoy you
He might not have shown it, but you might have just changed his life :-D Good work!
For me its not okay, she was under estimating you.
Weird or not, your mind-set is just like those who justify paying women less for the same job by saying that, after all, men need more money because they have to support their family. My husband and I were actually refused the opportunity to rent a house because "there must be something wrong with her husband that he doesn't work." IT may be male-dominated but it's not because it should be.
I have experienced first-hand what you are talking about. I have a BS in IT with a concentration in Software Development. I have been a programmer, and a Technical Writer for companies such as Google and Microsoft. Sounds good, right?
Not really. Or maybe I should say, "Yes, and no."
I have been programming since 1983 yet get paid less than men who weren't even born in 1983. I have been lucky enough to work for Google and Microsoft, yet my Google manager told me that he didn't think I was "technical enough" to work for Google even though I know more programming languages than he does.
I am often the only woman in a group, and, as you say, I get along fine with my male companions, and have a great deal in common with them. Yet there is still a disconnect for some reason between my abilities and the perception that people have of who I am and what I am capable of doing.
I try not to be a complainer, but you are right. It is still uncomfortable to join a group and be asked to act as the secretary and take notes.
We have a long way to go before the entire Earth is full of androgynous people with the same haircut wearing identical gray jumpsuits and filling whatever roles they want to.
When people see me, a dude, they assume I'm not a cheerleader and my cooking is mediocre. Solely because I'm a dude. (I'm not actually a cheerleader, but I cook awesomely.) When my daughter has a badass hairdo, they assume my wife did it. And when I tell them I'm the hair expert, that makes me less of a man, not more.
If you choose to work in a primarily male-occupied field doing a typically male-done job, that just comes with the territory. Every job has pros and cons, and being a woman in a male field is just one of the cons (or a pro in a few cases). Since you're a smart girl who can handle herself in the IT universe, you probably weighed the pros and cons of this career and decided that the pros far outweigh crap like this.
Sure, in many, many years, society will reach this neutered androgynous state where there are no such thing as gender norms, and sex-based discrimination and expectations don't exist, but that's a long ways off. In the mean time, doesn't collecting decent paychecks and being an IT badass outweigh dealing with a relatively small number of assholes compared to the number you'd have to deal with if you were an actual receptionist?
"The post wasn't about technology, but would he write the same on a post where two boys went on a hike?"
Maybe. Most of us computer nerds avoid sunlight... ;)
Ha ha ha, funny because it's true!
For us here in our country we are amazed and praise woman who do the work of a man.