Harassment & unfair treatment of women in IT – Can we change the behavior and culture?
As a woman, have you experience harassment or discrimination on the job? It seems that it is as prevalent as ever…How can we unlearn all of the perceptions and discriminations that we learn as we grow up? These are the questions I am pondering as I’m reading a New York Times article on the research published by the Center for Work-Life Policy, a nonprofit organization that studies women and work.
Based on data from 2,493 workers (1,493 women and 1,000 men) polled from March 2006 through October 2007 and hundreds more interviewed in focus groups, the report paints a portrait of a macho culture where women are very much outsiders, and where those who do enter are likely to eventually leave.
According to the study, women at the age of 35-40 leave their tech jobs…some completely drop out, and some leave for “softer” job…due to the non supportive and hostile work environments.
The 147-page report is filled with tales of sexual harassment (63 percent of women say they experienced harassment on the job); and dismissive attitudes of male colleagues (53 percent said in order to succeed in their careers they had to “act like a man”); and a lack of mentors (51 percent of engineers say they lack one); and hours that suit men with wives at home but not working mothers (41 percent of technology workers says they need to be available “24/7″).
How much more evidence can we get to finally prove that things need to change?
Here are two stories of two different women….
- Joshephine vs. Finn
Josephine, a computer programmer pretended to be a man by sending out emails as Finn. “The e-mail messages Finn received were strikingly different than those received by Josephine. Not only did they contain “brutal locker room stuff, that was hard to take, but also important information shared by colleagues who wanted to keep each other in the loop. Josephine got none of that”. - Another woman, Kate Craig-Wood had to undergo a sex change operation to see the sexism in the workplace that she had not experienced while she was a male. She found being male had some advantages: “In my earlier career, establishing credibility was very easy…it was just assumed I must know stuff. It was even assumed I knew more than I did. Those particular advantages are now gone: Since transitioning, and particularly in the past year, … it suddenly became really difficult to get guys to take me seriously on technical subjects. I found myself having to re-state points several times before it clicked that this blonde knows what she’s talking about.Sometimes, the response to her femininity is more blatant. Ms Craig-Wood occasionally likes to answer calls to Memset’s technical support line and says at least a third of the male callers ask to be transferred to a man: “It makes me laugh…it’s outrageous sexism.”
And there are many many more cases where women are treated unfairly. The question is why does it continue and what can we do about it?
Have you experienced harassment and/or unfair treatment at work and what did you do about it?
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I experience very odd vibes when I go to tech meetings. I get hit on or not taken seriously. It’s like some men don’t even know how to talk to women as a colleague. I haven’t found this so prevalent in other arenas (design, academia, etc.). There is a high tension vibe I find uncomfortable as it gets in the way of communication. JMHO.
I agree that sexism (and other monsters) is bound to exist wherever we accept that this paradigm SHOULD exist for us..
I view life a bit differently. I don’t disagree that there are some men out there that are some MAJOR jerks. So, in the paradigm that you ladies have expressed, you are placed in a subordinate role to them, they hold the keyes to the kingdom (in my paradigm, it would be a queendom) and they are playing a nasty game of keep away that forces you to leave the game.
I submit to you that we are entering a new area which is anyone’s game. When else in history has both a black man and a woman (“white” woman since this country’s history fails to stress that)are the sole Presidential candidates on a parties ticket?? If someone had told me that this would be the case 10 years ago, I would have said, ‘Nah, maybe in another 100 years.’
My point is that this information technology is a relatively new field of endeavor… a baby really. So much is occurring in such amazingly short spaces of time. To say that, “This is how it IS”, is extremely short sighted and pessimistic. It also does not take into account the “magic”, “tireless flexibility”, and “opportunity” which abounds within this industry. If you want to play, “The Great and Powerful Oz”, there are ways for you to strike out on your own, set-up your own web consulting firm, and NEVER let a soul know WHAT you have between your legs. And with that profit, YOU decide what paradigm you will exist in by creating greater opportunities for women, for blacks, for Samoans, for whomever.
Don’t limit yourselves, ladies. These men are only powerful because you make them so. Dare to dream, dare to act, dare to become, dare to set precedents, dare to create your own realities.
PS
Can ANYONE tell me?
How is it that, in most global societies, it is the chief task of women to raise male children, and…, having the majority of contact with these males in the male childs’ formative years, end up producing sons who are thoroughly sexist jerks??
Women have the ultimate power to change WORLD paradigms…”The hand that rocks the cradle”? I think we need to look in the mirror first, before we lament too much about these monstrous men from outer space who are enslaving us and keeping us down.
PPS
Viewing yourselves as, “Web Women”, versus, “Web ‘Girls’ (grrls)” is a start to leveling the playing field. If you don’t take yourselves seriously, why should anyone else?
Hello gammerstang,
Thank you for your comments and your participation in the Webgrrls community…We are often asked about the Webgrrls name and how it came about…
We started in April 1995 and when determining a name for our organization, an organization that would help chart the paths of many women who were at the forefront of the women’s movement on the Internet, Web Women sounded to old and boring for this exciting new technology and Webgirls sounded too young for the level of women who were participating. It was also right around the time that the grrl movement was brewing and the Webgrrls name just stuck…and we think it is fun.
Please rest assured that we are very serious about business, very serious about supporting each other and very serious about encouraging each other, but we also like to have a lot of fun.
See you online!
I worked in IT for nearly 20 years, the last 12 for one of the largest software companies in the world. I agree 100% with this article. I received extreme discrimination as a woman. I was required to do much of the work, while the men took all the credit. I was not allowed to speak directly to anyone who may see my abilities and give me credit for them. My manager broke a lot of labor laws, but there was not much I could do to stop him.
It was not always this way, however. This trend has happened as a direct result of outsourcing to countries which do not have the same cultural equalities that we enjoy here in the U.S. Men from the countries we outsource to have a much different view of women. We are considered 2nd class citizens. In the last few years, these men have been promoted to management positions. They get rid of or push out the most vulnerable people (women and minorities) and replace them with friends and relatives.
I had a hard time leaving, because my (H1 VISA) manager didn’t want me to leave. He tried to force me to stay–as if that’s possible. It was the last insult, as real push in leaving. he tried to prevent me from leaving gracefully, by trying to burn my bridges, but fortunately, in 12 years, I was able to gain a lot of respect.
Many of us have left our computer jobs to pursue careers where we do not have to deal with these cultures. Many of us have left to pursue careers where we can use our creative AND our technical abilities, such as interior design, architecture and graphic design.
The corporate software giants are hurting themselves by not realizing what they are losing. Many of us have both creative and technical skills–in my exerpience, not too many people in outsourced jobs can say that.