Celebrating difference
Working with women is wonderful. Those who work in offices with loads of women [and women themselves of course] may not really appreciate this. When I was in campus, the motivation for waking up in the morning was the kebab and mandazi breakfast. I can remember looking around during the first induction-type session we had and hardly being able to make out the women. That's when I gave up on that angle of my education. Every year I would look out for the number of women in the 'fresher' class but would be met by the same ratios. 15-20% women. And I always used to ask myself why. Girls were always top of the class in primary school. For the longest time a girls' school was the best among high schools. So why weren't there more women in my class. I never found an answer, only a sombre acceptance of reality. Where are the women in IT. Is there Intrinsic aptitude that's responsible for this gender imbalance as some have suggested, or is there not.
I don't know. All I know is that working in an environment where more than 10% of the work force is composed of women is a good thing. I have a phone number and a lunch date to prove it.
posted by Samborera @ 12:19
21 Comments:
There is a gender imbalance. Much of it is perpetuated by traditions i.e. women's work vs men's work. It was (and probably is) thought that a woman will marry and look after a family so why bother about higher education? How many lunch dates have you go so far?
But women these days don't think like that, do they. Which is why I still don't understand how come the situation is the way it is.
I've just had one... and she has a boyfriend.
I was just cming to congratulate you on the date and then you say she has a boyfriend?? Wooi thats not a date!
I only found out at the 'date'. I know. I was reaching. Now I can't text her things like "what are you wearing". Bummer.
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yup. i wouldnt know why the imbalance is there. maybe its got to do with our internal mechanics, maybe women are just not predispositioned to bonding with gif's,interphases,servers and what not!(personally, ignorance is bliss, na bado!)but have no fear , to broach another stereotype, if your looking for more 'hot dates', ebu check in the HR depatment
Women light up the office. Especially young beatiful women. They add energy to an office and keep guys smiling. They make you look forward to go to work.
You look up from your desk and there is one of them walking away swinging her cute ass. You walk up to one of them at their desk and cant help look down at their cleavage. You walk up the stairs and there is one of them walking up before and so you get to admire her thighs. You flirt with them and touch them. If I owned a business I would make sure there a re a few cute token mamas to boost morale.
I bet you will still send her those what are you wearing texts. I bet you will call her and she will say she just got out of the shower or is just about to get into bed. I bet you will do the most reasonable thing and ignore the fact she has a boyfriend. That is only a problem if you want to be her boy friend.
i'd like to know where the men are! only about 10% of librarians are male! here at my new job, i work with ALL women. let me tell ya, it is a lot of estrogen! i miss working with men! they are funny and more laid-back. it's one of the main reasons i want a new job. not for dating purposes. i just like working with men. they are more fair and more approachable than women. (there are exceptions, of course, but this has been my general experience.)
samborera, we should swap offices. then we'd be happier, i think.
i heard once that there is a main difference between what men's brains enjoy learning and what women's brains enjoy learning. men want to know how THINGS work and that's why they are always leaning towards mechanics, computers, machines, etc. women want to know how PEOPLE work, which is why they lean more towards social work, teaching, nursing, etc. i think it's also why women get so over-involved in putting effort into our personal relationships.
it makes sense to me. of course, there are exceptions.
mama shady - Do you know something that I don't, about HR departments. I thought it was the sales/marketing departments that have the hot women [and libraries apparently].
ajamaa - Kudos. You are brave enough to say what many men think. Now you know I can't be anyone's boyfriend. Even though she went for the face of africa auditions.
VB - Another mystery. Why women don't get along. It'd probably be better if I became a librarian. The IT department where I work doesn't have too many women. It's only when I go for lunch or otherwise leave my desk when I get to see the women. I'm grateful for small mercies.
I've worked in two different male-dominated fields, and I still don't have a clue as to why more ladies don't get into fields like IT... probably the fact that the actual reality is that job prospects are still dim ?... like it or not, some of these fields remain male-dominated coz employers prefer to employ men. I have been to more than one interview where I have been told (to my face) that the work involved is not suited to ladies.
Employers prefer men?
i love working with women, i have seen them crunch code or at least run pl-sql that is worse than c. I am learning from them. But one is leaving, the more reason i should mourn while samborera is having a time of his life.
Another thing, mama mia, about 'dim job prospects'. I've just had a look at today's paper and there are loads of IT jobs in there.
Women who write C code? Where. Can I get a phone number or an email or something. We also have a chic in our department who's leaving. Where do you work again, matejivu? And. I need to reiterate that I work with mostly men. There are 1,2,3,4,5 women in our department. There are 20+ men. I only get to see lots of women when I go for lunch. Like today... Gigagaga.
We have ten women in my department! We are doing a lot better than other places.
My section, where we crunch code has no women. There is a lady who is BSc Computer Science,...she adamantly refused to write code. She has written Java programs. All her systems were re-assigned to the rest of us.
Now, if you enter Customer Care, you will ask, where are the men?
I want to meet that chic who crunches C.
Samborera,
It's one thing for the jobs to be advertised, it's quite another to get them. Trust me on that. The jobs are there, but they're given to men (mostly) coz pple seem to believe ladies cant crunch code.
mama mia - It's not so much that people don't believe ladies can't crunch code. It's that not many ladies want to crunch code. Are you one of the few who actually like programming?
The times, they are a-changing – plenty of ladies out there who code, and love it. I have a (lady) friend in Customer Care who can code Java better than the average programmer. Another (lady) friend got her degree, then did twice as many certifications and sample programs for her CV as the average joe, and ended up being told she was 'overqualified' at interviews ... it's tough out there for ladies wanting to become part of a man's world. Maybe you don't see too many of them at your workplace simply coz they've not been allowed in. I'm just saying.
I for one can't code in Java. I'm an average Joe. So, more power to your pals. Any chance you can hook a guy up?
Hi Samborera!
Speaking as a woman in I.T :-) I could give a few clues.
The top schools in this country, until a few years ago did not encourage girls to pursue course in Computing. They are encouraged to be doctors and thats why you find more than half of the students doing medicine are ladies. Very few venture into engineering courses, and even fewer into computing. However this trend is changing.
The main reason in my opinion (I should have started with this point, anyway) is that when girls first encounter I.T (I dislike that word by the way because I dont know what it means :-)) they dont like it and they never go back to it- in many cases. Research shows (I will get the link) that the way in which computing courses are taught are geared towards male.
Women , it is said, need to understand why before how. That is they may need to understand why we are learning object-oriented programming or automata theory :-) before you jump into the cudas (what was the spelling?)
For Men on the other had, you can jump straight into the syntax and the structure of a language and then tell them the whole point later -supposedly.
In addition, video games,etc are geared towards men. I could go on but those are the excuses.
Continue celebrating the difference.
Athena - Hey! It's been a while. You deleted your blog? You are one of the very few women I know who actually wanted to code. Probably the only one even. I can remember sitting on the grass outside our institute building in campus, watching the med chics walk by. If my parents had their way, I'd also probably have done medicine. Perhaps it wouldn't have been that bad with half the class being female.
It's amazing that reaction to a first programming course. All the chics [at Strath] said they'd never code again. Ever. Quite a few of the guys, myself included, were really excited by the experience. I try not to push the question why too much. I like women the way they are. So what was the point of automata theory?
And. As it is, I won't be celebrating this difference here for too long. I handed in my resignation notice today. Sad.
Automata theory, is there for the sole purpose of thoroughly confusing your mind. Ati "a brown fox ran over the black dog". "Cuda" if I remember was spelled cdr. In present day and circumstance that means "call data record".
I know what theory is, but what the hell is Automata? Sounds like something only Stephen Hawking can understand.
Its just like all that stupid calculus. I have never liked mathematics and can only pass the subject if a gun is held to my head.
Then there was the other one, logic programming (akina prolog and lisp). I have never seen something so hard to comprehend. I will have calculus any day. That is why I will not touch Python.
My observation has led me to believe that you can be a brilliant mathematician but a pathetic programmer. Of course, there are those higher orders of programming where you have to have excellent grasp of both;
My take on why women run away from IT in general and programming in particular is because they get bored of the intense concentration that is required of the subject.
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