When I go to the
various IT events there is one thing that I notice a lack of and that
is women in IT.
I’m not saying
that there aren’t any women in IT but there seems to be so few
compared to the number of men. I go to events where there are around
50 men at a meeting and there is sometimes 3 – 4 women in the
group. It is something that I notice a lot and something that I
really see as a problem. I have been told that I don’t understand
the material or asked if I am just a tag along but I always say that
I am there because I am in IT.
A recent
experience
I did have an
interesting experience recently and it did show that there are still
people that have a problem with a women doing what they see as a
man’s job especially in IT. A client asked our business if we
could assist in moving computers for them. Yes, it was they hired
the two staff to do the work so that was one man and one women. The
person hiring us knew exactly who he was hiring and was happy that he
could get me to assist with something in the office.
We arrive to help
move both the desk top computers and the monitors for the various
staff members and in this company there are a lot of men. I didn’t
care because my role was to move the computers and that was what I
was going to do. Sure, I had the cart to help me the computers the
distance between the different desks but that was all. The first
couple of moves went extremely well and the men seemed to be happy
that I was there to move his computer. Now the third man that I had
to help was a little different story. He wasn’t as prepared as
most of them for the move so that was the first issue that I had to
deal with but I understood and dealt with that.
When I went up to
him to let him know that it was his turn for the computer move he
didn’t seem to be too happy that it was time but he didn’t say
anything about that. I did let him know that if he wanted to dust
off the desk he was going to be going to he might want to do it then
because I was going to be moving the computer quickly. He went off
to clean the new desk so at least I could spend the time
disconnecting his computer without an issue. I loaded the cart with
just his computer stuff and off I went to set it up.
The new desk was at
the opposite end of the office so that was fine and as I started to
set up the computer he noticed a box under the desk and asked me what
was in it. As I am not staff I didn’t have a clue and let him know
that he might want to ask the person that had been sitting there
about the box. He disappeared for a few minutes which gave me the
time to set up the rest of the computer and ensure that it was going
to boot up correctly. I did this and finally let him know that if he
could log in I would appreciate it and then I was done with his
computer and the move of it.
Well I figured I was
finished having to deal with him but it didn’t end there because
about an hour later he comes over and questions me about the mouse
that I gave him. The mouse that I gave him was the one from his desk
but he felt that I had exchanged his mouse for a dirty mouse. I
walked over with him to check to ensure it was the mouse that I had
moved and sure enough it was as we were only moving one user at a
time so it was difficult to mix up any of the computer equipment. I
told him that yes it was the mouse that had been on his desk and just
explained to him again that we were only moving one desk at a time so
it wasn’t possible to get the mice mixed up.
Other notes
I know that there are quite a few women in some IT roles but I think
one of the issues is that they are not in some of the higher profile
jobs which makes them less visible. I go to some security meetings
and there are some women that are extremely knowledgeable and make a
point of showing up to meetings.
I hope that soon it will be a lot easier to be a women in IT and not
be looked down upon by other members of the same profession. Sure a
women may not be able to move some of the equipment that a man can
move but with way things are changing the equipment is getting
lighter and move of the jobs involve a virtual machine and not a
physical machine. Not every women that is in IT is a support person
for the men. Women are in IT because of their passion and interest
in the work but men have to understand that sure for years it was a
male dominated profession but times are changing. A women that is in
a role has already had to prove themselves and really doesn’t need
to be challenged by other individuals just because they don’t feel
she belongs in the role.
I will continue to prove that yes women do belong in IT and we aren’t
all just there in the sales or marketing roles. We are there as a
key part of a business and need to be seen as that and are no longer
the one’s standing in the background.