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Women in IT -- mechanics behind the male-centric office

scrottie on 2006-01-02T10:24:05

Recently, I had the pleasure of observing a work environment that included a flaming gay guy, a female cohort, a male gay-hater, and a male boss. There was exactly one loser in the lot other than the boss, and bosses are generally losers, and it wasn't the flaming gay guy.

I'll give you my conclusion first, but only after some ground rules:

  • I really hope no one I know is reading this. If you know more better than having come over to the house a few times and know me from PM, stop reading. Thank you. exec; die;
  • This is a topic, that of women in the workplace, that men care about a lot more than woman.
  • Women are more inclined to persue worthwhile perfessions, such as nursing (doctors regurtitate rote and then absolve themselves of any consequence of their haste and disinvolvement), school teachers, etc.
  • This post is probably a troll. It's probably wrong. It's certainly not authoratative. I'm talking out my ass based on a few observations of a few women.

    Men don't respond poorly to women, they respond poorly to people who conduct themselves like women conduct themselves. Even gay men have enough sense not to conduct themselves like women. That's the conclusion. Here's the argument.

    No male going into a workplace environment feels as though his skills will be recognized and his hard work rewarded. This is trained out of us (males) on the playground. Doing a good job is not a start -- it isn't even a significant factor. Neither is working hard. Remember this rule of thumb: the chief does no work.

    You could do work if you wanted to. Assigned work from your boss, you'll do it if you want to kiss up, but you'll probably just sit on it use that as the only significant weapon you have in a power struggle.

    Since you can learn anything you want, or find out how to do anything you want, take it as read that you already know it. Don't ever admit to not knowing anything. Maybe you're not fresh on it. Realisticly, they might know more than you, but it doesn't matter, because you don't want to have to deal with them acting like it. They can't prove they know more than you because proving so would require a comprehensive run-down of every topic, and that's infeasable. So, for all intents and purposes, they do not know more than you, so they aren't allowed to act like it.

    Nice people are flexible. So, if a nice person says "no" in their sheepish, cooperative, respectful way, they most certainly haven't demonstrated a vailed disdain and threatened to sit on the assignment indefinately while finding endless alabis and excuses for having not accomplished what they agreed to do. A nice person wouldn't sit on a project and make excuses, so in a very real sense, a polite "no" is a hell of a lot more of a "yes" than demonstrated irritation, moderate avoidance, and a forced but unenthused "yes". Women tend overhwelming to be nice and as such, they're other people's pushovers -- pushovers for the cream of non-choice assignments crop.

    Conversely, nice people ask for things to be done in open-ended, nice ways -- ways that don't include hard deadlines, include specific arbitrary acts to demonstrate submission ("great, after you've cleaned up my home directory for me, make a PowerPoint presentation of the work you've done, get on the phone, set up a conference call to India, and tell us all about it as part of the Saturday lunch meeting"), or are vague to the point of demonstrating disdain for the (obviously inferior hence submissive) underling. When asking for a task to be done, skimp on the details to keep your options open, throw in extra unrelated demands, and if you still haven't demonstrated disrespect, throw that in real quick too.

    If you need any more pointers, tune in to the Discovery Channel and wait for the apes. Just leave the TV on. When you heard the phrase "old silverback", start paying attention.

    Conclusion: women can succeed in the workplace just as men can, given the correct set of life experiences and the right attitude. A history of car theft and jail time, multiple divorces with no alimony or child support to show for it, teenage children, a nicotine addiction, and shattered dreams (such as of having been a ballerina) will put you in the correct mind-set for the ruthlessness and abusiveness of the male-centric workplace.

    Oh, I didn't tie up my little story yet -- the flaming gay guy and the woman. The woman tried very hard to please and was hurt when her work was shat on. She was hurt when her requests, which were quite reasonably, where summarily denied with a puncuated lack of consideration. But she didn't fight. My requests, and the requests of the gay guy, where also denied, but I got snide (insinuating they were in the same class as other amaturely run failed businesses and that the decision making was making so poor of decisions as not to be qualified for the role) and he got passive aggressive. The other male employee just went full into dominance challenging.

    It's time to go to work! Are you feeling nasty?
    -scott



    Mars Needs Bitchez

    hfb on 2006-01-02T14:27:18

    You know, women just can't fucking win...either they're aggressive like me and get called a bitch or they're too nice and get called mary poppins. I've seen plenty of guys with the too nice problem and can't recall ever blaming it on their gender while pounding their heads against the bathroom walls trying to rile them. They'd just say, "Thank you mistress" and smile. Freaks.

    Maybe guys should get to work and make more money to support us in the way we have become accustomed so we wouldn't have to work at all and thereby provide the solution to this pesky problem of women and other freaks in the office? Better get selling more books scottie and maybe start a campaign to get more geeks to marry women and keep them at home in style to help clense the workplace of those silly little women. Maybe the slogan "Mars Needs Biotchez" would work, too, for recruiting women with more attitude.

    Re:Mars Needs Bitchez

    TeeJay on 2006-01-02T18:57:57

    You're both wrong IME..

    In about 6 years commercial programming I've worked professionally with probably > 20 blokes and ~ 3 women programmers.

    I haven't noticed the diffence really, the women I have worked with have generally been more consistently normal, with less freaks at either side of the passive and aggressive edges of the curve - probably because the sample is too small to get the same kind of results

    As for women getting the blame for being too passive or aggressive - this is the first time I've seen it, and like the guy says, his sample is 1 woman in 1 office.

    I actually worked on the website support and development for a major UK project that is aimed at the real root of the problem : computer clubs for girls which runs classes for girls after school using online learning and stuff. This is where the problem is - by the time most of the girls I knew at school reached 11 they weren't interested - in the IT class at GCSE most of the girls switched or dropped it in the second year, and marginally more boys stayed. When I got to college there were just 2 girls on the course and only 1 finished, when I got to university - in my first year there were 2 women both of whom dropped out and I'm not sure if even one has completed the degree in its 5 year history

    When I looked at the engineering faculty it was pretty much the same story but with a few more women and a bit more success - can't say why exactly as I never had the chance to meet any - just noticed a token handful in the photographs you get for each course

    I'm pretty sure, the problem is that most women don't think this business is interested and I'd wager that any girl with an interest in computing would get a lot more pressure from female than male peers to change subjects.. and once you've only got a couple left, there is a feeling of isolation with your friends on unrelated courses, being so heavily outnumbered, etc - and the odds of any 1 person out of the 80 or so starting a decent CS degree finishing in the final 20 or so (at least that was the ratio for my course) who gradutate is pretty low

    Thinking about problems in the workplace is pretty much too late

    Re:Mars Needs Bitchez

    scrottie on 2006-01-02T21:59:15

    People doing the work they really want to be doing, such as at a worth while and well run non-profit organization, seems to me to be the best way to get rid of the work place pettiances that stem from people not wanting to do work or accept delegation. Actually, that statement is circular. Huh. Guess that makes it self-evidant ;)

    Wrong? Jolly good! Never admit that any other male knows anything you don't... don't ask him how many places he's worked, or how many times he's seen the same pattern, or whether he has taken into account the scenarios you have in mind -- just give a quick, brief dismissal as being "wrong" and snarkily imply that the right answer lies in your head, maybe or maybe not accessible, depending on your disposition. Good show! A prize pupil! In fact, you graduate. Don't comment on my blog any more. Thank you.

    -scott

    Re:Mars Needs Bitchez

    TeeJay on 2006-01-03T08:12:21

    nevermind, I thought I could provide some useful info and opinion based on university, work and actual meetings with people at cc4g who are investigating and working on the causes of the lack of women in IT -- that's not exactly pulling it from thin air.

    Of course you were just ranting about offices that suck and I'm glad I've never worked anywhere close to as bad as that.

    I just suggested that gender makes no difference, as did hfb and even you in your response. So whats with the arsey response?

    Re:Mars Needs Bitchez

    scrottie on 2006-01-03T08:16:43

    To answer your question, lack of coffee, mostly. But the "You're wrong" put my hackles up. Sorry about that.

    -scott

    Re:Mars Needs Bitchez

    scrottie on 2006-01-02T22:07:41

    Hi hfb,

    I'm always surprised and vaguely flattered when people read my drivil. Coming back this morning, this was a lot less interesting and poorly worded than I remember it being last night.

    The article was written in the tone of offering advise and solutions, but the advise and solutions were tongue in cheek jabs at men. This is satire. I write primarily satire. I'm probably really bad at it but that's what it's at least supposed to be. That what is required of woman, or indeed anyone going into the workplace, is so absurd clearly demonstrates something is wrong. And, for the sake of argument, I showed women as being the sole victem of these politics, but, as you suggest, that's absolutely not the case. It was also my own frustration that prompted this rant.

    "can't recall ever blaming it on their gender while pounding their heads against the bathroom walls trying to rile them" -- actually, non-assertive men are frequently called sissy boys, nancies, etc, and had their heads beat against the bathroom wall. One minor difference -- rather than blaming the gender for being weak, the gender is blamed for not being allowed to be weak. Man or woman, IT or other field, you're working with a bunch of basically well-adjusted psychopaths.

    Oh, and I was kind of hoping you, dear commenter, would have the answers...

    Regards,
    -scott