The girl's Geek side!
August 30th 2007 13:46
It seems that been an IT girl always surprises people!
Why? Well I still wonder, even though women in the technical industries are not so rare (they are sometimes to a certain extend but we are not in the last century), people think that they are less competent or know less than their male colleagues or that they ended here because a sort of mistake or hazard.
Other common mistake is to think that we need to explain to you everything, even the basics…. And when they realize that actually you are at their level if not above, the surprise come in: good surprise people who are impressed (why? nobody knows since you studied IT it should sound quite normal for you to know), or the ones who are a bit defensive (without generalizing quite often the older generations or machos of all kinds)
For me I never had these problems probably because I worked with young people from my generation, but I heard that of seen that often. I never had it, until lately where I was called a “geek” at work ( It happened before but never in a working environment) so I asked why was I a geek. “Because you are like a guy, I can talk to you like a bloke and you understand”. Yeah that is because I have a generalist engineering degree, meaning I learned all kind of mathematics, mechanics, physics, plus I specialized in IT.
Worse part or more hilarious is that outside work it scares some guys! No I am serious, they ask you what you do and as soon as you say you are an engineer, well they kind of runaway. “Oh you are an engineer….. Oh ok. Am going to have a drink now, see you later” along with other curious and ridiculous situation where we may try to test your knowledge. This seem to be worse if the people have a lower education than yours.
Well, you though this was to attack the guys right?
Well no, girls are worse! At least outside the job. If you say I work in IT or computing quite often you get the question whereas you work doing data entry, or secretary…. At least a guy may doubt your skills but he doesn’t think that you say IT just to look smart or because your job is somehow linked with computers! Secondly you are asked so it is hard , how do you understand that stuff… Hum, well the answer that burns your lips is: well Blondie, I did studies and at least ME, I can think and understand a lot of things, I am not mentally challenged” or “You know my IQ is not as low as yours…. Well I mean certain people”. I know that is a bit harsh but trust me after a while you just get tired of it. And same here, they will not talk to you anymore….
So saying you’re an IT girl doesn’t seem to be the best way to start a conversation.
Do not fear, I know that it really depends on people and how open minded people are, but also on the cultural background of people. But be aware of something, on the contrary of what you may think I’ve seen more this kind of reactions in western countries rather than in the third world countries or countries of the south.
Ironic right?
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