Comments on: Women in IT: Really?! Where? http://www.elvismontero.com/2008/06/30/women-in-it-really-where/ Technologist. Blogger. Human. Mon, 20 Jun 2011 23:55:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Ivan http://www.elvismontero.com/2008/06/30/women-in-it-really-where/comment-page-1/#comment-43 Ivan Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:40:28 +0000 http://www.elvismontero.com/?p=17#comment-43 Damn, monk, you never cease to amaze me. I never thought about it that way, but it makes so much sense, I completely agree with you. Damn, monk, you never cease to amaze me. I never thought about it that way, but it makes so much sense, I completely agree with you.

]]> By: emontero http://www.elvismontero.com/2008/06/30/women-in-it-really-where/comment-page-1/#comment-42 emontero Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:11:38 +0000 http://www.elvismontero.com/?p=17#comment-42 @xmonk, Your comments, as usual, provide valuable insight into the subject at hand my dear friend. I concur with you on the research aspect of our field (ultimately, it's in that area where the "coolest" and "totally badass" stuff is developed -- both in software and hardware). However, I don't think women are smarter (or dumber, for that matter) than men. Kids (both boys and girls) don't want to study CS/IT because, well, how many programs or reality TV shows you see out there where the main character is a programmer or CS major? The field is in desperate need of a major PR overhaul. Good food for thought. Thanks for sharing! @xmonk,

Your comments, as usual, provide valuable insight into the subject at hand my dear friend. I concur with you on the research aspect of our field (ultimately, it’s in that area where the “coolest” and “totally badass” stuff is developed — both in software and hardware). However, I don’t think women are smarter (or dumber, for that matter) than men. Kids (both boys and girls) don’t want to study CS/IT because, well, how many programs or reality TV shows you see out there where the main character is a programmer or CS major? The field is in desperate need of a major PR overhaul.

Good food for thought. Thanks for sharing!

]]> By: xmonk http://www.elvismontero.com/2008/06/30/women-in-it-really-where/comment-page-1/#comment-40 xmonk Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:50:21 +0000 http://www.elvismontero.com/?p=17#comment-40 I don't know. I don't think the lack of women in IT, is cause of lack of empowerment by their part. Also the image of the geek or nerd sitting in a basement, writing complex code, is as far as you can get from IT. As you already know, IT it's not like that, you slave but seldom it's a satisfying complex problem, it's more like: "WTF? was the dude that wrote this thinking?!" In the other hand, I've met quite a few very smart, capable amazing female programmers, that duke it out in the business but it's a labor of love, and like their male counterpart, they either get assimilated into the corporate black hole, or move into contract work. Now, my personal believe is that women collectively are smarter than us, and they realized what some of us, realize after years in the IT business. If you are an administrator, or interested in that type of work, IT is a very good place to be, but if you are a creative individual, as whole IT is the worst thing that you can do to yourself, regardless of the field. You may not agree but I have been in the IT field for 20 years now, and worked for some very prominent companies, and my experience is that if you are not interested in becoming a manager, there is no growth options for you, no matter how good you are, no matter how smart you are, or your gender, you will be cast aside as someone that's "afraid to grow" or as "immature". So if you love science, and you love math, the only way to go, is research. Think about all the great things we have in IT: * Networking. * GUI. * Unix. * etc.. All are the products of individual researches (Unix,C), or a combination of the above and companies research facilities (Xerox PARC, Bell Labs), if you look into the Xerox PARC papers, you will see they, worked in what today would be a care free manner, very little managerial activities if any going on. Just smart people making cool stuff. It goes with out saying that their is a business side to this, but the people in the labs, with the exceptions of the heads, have little to no interaction with the business side, unless they wanted too or cared about it. So to sum it up, I think women interested in science are looking for more full filling lines of work. Those that are business oriented well, those rather be in other industries than IT, and it would be interesting to know why is that. Like I said you may not agree, and that's fine. I don’t know. I don’t think the lack of women in IT, is cause of lack of empowerment by their part. Also the image of the geek or nerd sitting in a basement, writing complex code, is as far as you can get from IT. As you already know, IT it’s not like that, you slave but seldom it’s a satisfying complex problem, it’s more like: “WTF? was the dude that wrote this thinking?!”

In the other hand, I’ve met quite a few very smart, capable amazing female programmers, that duke it out in the business but it’s a labor of love, and like their male counterpart, they either get assimilated into the corporate black hole, or move into contract work.

Now, my personal believe is that women collectively are smarter than us, and they realized what some of us, realize after years in the IT business. If you are an administrator, or interested in that type of work, IT is a very good place to be, but if you are a creative individual, as whole IT is the worst thing that you can do to yourself, regardless of the field.

You may not agree but I have been in the IT field for 20 years now, and worked for some very prominent companies, and my experience is that if you are not interested in becoming a manager, there is no growth options for you, no matter how good you are, no matter how smart you are, or your gender, you will be cast aside as someone that’s “afraid to grow” or as “immature”.

So if you love science, and you love math, the only way to go, is research. Think about all the great things we have in IT:

* Networking.
* GUI.
* Unix.
* etc..

All are the products of individual researches (Unix,C), or a combination of the above and companies research facilities (Xerox PARC, Bell Labs), if you look into the Xerox PARC papers, you will see they, worked in what today would be a care free manner, very little managerial activities if any going on. Just smart people making cool stuff.

It goes with out saying that their is a business side to this, but the people in the labs, with the exceptions of the heads, have little to no interaction with the business side, unless they wanted too or cared about it.

So to sum it up, I think women interested in science are looking for more full filling lines of work. Those that are business oriented well, those rather be in other industries than IT, and it would be interesting to know why is that.

Like I said you may not agree, and that’s fine.

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