A recent(ish) article in Tech Crunch argues that women themselves are part of the problem of why there are few women in IT.
It’s argument reads to me as a combination of acute frustration about the situation (including a lack of recognition for what the author and his colleagues have tried to do) accompanied by a portion that suggests that women should also look to their own traits and make improvements (stop being so nurturing and get out there and take some risk).
Contrast this with a recent piece in ComputerWorld. It makes some arguments about the machismo culture in IT, but it also makes another argument, isolation, being alone in a crowd. I have to say I find the ComputerWorld piece more thoughtful and balanced.
While I want to empathize with the TechCrunch author, really, I think that he underestimates the history of women taking risks, like the ones that earnt us the right to vote, the ones that saw women transformed from property into people, … and also feel that he underestimates some of the obstacles for women in science and engineering, we are a new generation working on those too, but that also requires a risk. Well worth it.
The line of argumentation in the TechCrunch piece has the capacity to perpetuate the idea that in IT women should be like men, rather than the culture of IT should be something that is inclusive of men and women.
