I agree with your point about women who are in the tech industry but don’t identify themselves that way. I see myself as an IA but feel that I can’t call myself a ‘tech’ or ‘geek’ as I don’t code.

I was interested in the comments about being able to put in the long hours to be successful, the kind of ‘lunch is for wimps’ attitude that I thought we’d left behind. But unfortunately I meet many male geeks who proudly tell me about being up all night coding and working 70 hour weeks.

Melanie

I am a pretty highly paid freelancer, because I care about what I do and I also continually develop my skills so I can do the best job quicker and more efficiently than the average.

Personally I feel if you have to stay back continually, it’s generally because your a brown nose, your to slow/ dim to get the work done in the prescribed amount of time or you don’t know how to stand up for yourself.

In any case it’s got nothing to do with male/ female, it’s got to do with having (and wanting to have) a life outside of work.

I was reminded of Ms. Wilson’s talk when you mentioned in your first point about asking women in tech to step up, get involved, and do more. She mentioned that while many women wouldn’t think of running for office, if asked by someone else to do it, many times that woman would reconsider and often would run. So, I don’t know why we need to be asked, but apparently we do.

- Jennifer

(more info about Marie Wilson’s work is available at thewhitehouseproject.org)

As has been alluded to, women need to be in family-friendly environments to successfully maneuver through life. Not fair, but will always be true. Male dominated work situations are stereotypically not family-friendly.

Until female role models in tech become more visible, young women will choose careers that they know other women are choosing.

Besides – men and women need to hear women, minorities of all stripes, and diverse points of view from the podium. How else will we learn, begin to empathize, grow as humans – and make better products?

I also think there are a lot of women who ARE women in tech, but who define themselves as marketing people, or managers, or PR people or designers, or researchers who just happen to only ever work in the tech sector. I’m not sure if there is something we need to *do* about this, although I’m starting a personal (informal) research project to better understand why these women exclude themselves from the ‘women in tech’ label. Perhaps it’s the information architect in me, but I have a feeling that a lot of this is taxonomy / labeling related.

First of all I’d say the exclusion often comes from others, who have a very narrow definition of “tech” that rules out a lot of people. It’s a vicious circle: why identify with a label that’s applied in such an elitist way? There are probably other factors as well So I think it’s a great idea to explore this more, and work towards a more inclusive definition.

jon

Either way his response is arrogant and condescending. If you want to read another well written riposte to Milo’s view then check out my colleague Rebecca Thomson’s blog post.

However there is one key difference in the tech industry that promotes the men well past the women and that is the hours per day they put into the job. The lady-techies (with very few exceptions) head home at 5 in the afternoon while the men put in the hours required by the job not by their employment contracts.

Admittedly women have commitments – boyfriends, husbands, children, dinners to be cooked etc and they have a right to leading balanced lives. But the tech industry is one place where the winner is the first person to complete the job ASAP and if you have to sacrifice your personal life (and sleep) in order to put in the hours, you simply have to do it. For many (most?) women this is simply not an option.