I've always been at ease standing around a group of guys discussing a variety of topics from politics to sports to their hilarious dating habits. And.. oh my gawd...even technology. I know model numbers of gadgets, and what geeky computer terms mean, and how to put together an OK website (though admittedly, my HTML knowledge is lacking). I even have a
start-up company that's launching online hopefully by the end of 2010.
Am I standing in a crowd of 1? No. I can name dozens of girls I've met on Twitter and even a few in real life that are just as geeky, if not geekier than me. In fact, I love calling them friends because honestly, I don't have much in common with girls who only enjoy shoes, purses and makeup (not to say that I don't dress up, but you see where I'm going). So I guess that's why I'm a little surprised that Tuesday seemed to provide an avalanche of articles discussing women in technology. I've never thought about it as an issue.
First it was the
Tech Crunch article,
Why No Women Want To Be On A “Women In Tech” Panel,
which was a little weird. My first reaction at reading the title was, "I'd LOVE to be on a Women in Tech Panel!" But it obviously goes more in depth than what the title suggests.
Then there was the
Mashable article,
Why We Need to Reframe the "Women in Tech" Debate. And I found this to be 100% refreshing. It was more positive saying that there are so many women out there but that there needs to be some kind of community where we could go for resources.
And
finally my friend,
Kate Holloway,
wrote
Marginalizing and stereotyping is good marketing strategy… right? Where she discusses a post written poorly by Leslie Sobon about landing the geeky guy.
The funny thing about this all, is I myself
wrote a blog post just earlier that morning before seeing all of these about how I won't learn to make coffee to fulfill the gender stereotype that that's what women do in an office.
What's the Solution?
Do I think women need to band together? Eh. Do I think we should constantly call attention to not having women in technology? Eh. I don't think it has anything to do with adult women right now.
I think it has everything to do with how we teach our children. Does little Suzie need to play with a doll? Ooooor should she play with this fancy new computer and see how it all functions? Is she taught that it's OK to take business classes in high school? Is she empowered to run with her idea as an entrepreneur in college? Does she have the confidence necessary to pull off an idea?
Look, we all know that having intelligent, drama free women involved in anything makes everything better. I am still convinced if there had been more women involved in the Apple iPad naming decisions that disgusting name never would have gone through - so maybe there is a need for pumping up tech to girls at an early age not to just girls, but to little boys as well for learning to play nice with the girls.
Communities for Women
I get so bored when I go to women only events - girls nights, women's luncheons, networking events. I feel like I'm being cheated out of an equal dynamic. Sure, the communities are nice, but they're usually so full of emotions and patting each other on the back that I lose all interest.
Forbes has a section of their website dedicated to women and recently it came up with the
Top 100 Blogs for women. I had high hopes for this, thinking that since it was a business site it would be pretty inclusive. Some of these blogs are Grade A quality Amazingness, but they're so stereotypical with mommy blogs and feelings, and relationships - Oprah, Martha Stewart. Who needs it? I think out of the list of 100 there might have been 5-10 that were OK?
There's nothing more annoying than solidifying old gender roles. Stop saying that there aren't any women in technology when there are. And stop pointing them out like it's some kind of magic trick when you find one.
