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Sex and Power survey reckons there aren't enough women in tech

Broads banned
Thursday, 4 September 2008, 22:00

IN THE WORLD of science, engineering and technology (SET), women are most certainly not on top, according to new research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The research, sensationally called ‘Sex and Power’ – perhaps ‘gender and power’ would have sounded too boring – reckons fewer women than ever are slaving away at the top of tech, most hitting their pretty little heads on that infamous glass ceiling.

But one woman, Annette Williams, Director of the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science (UKRC), has decided to speak out, outraged that her sisters in tech are still bound by the tight USB cords of oppression and injustice.

“Too often the laws and the policies are there but in practice equality still does not exist” ranted Williams, as she set fire to her br…er…broadband. “Issues affect all women, and are particularly noticeable in science, engineering and technology, where under representation is particularly acute” she continued.

Williams noted how important it was for woman to assume all sorts of positions (she possibly said ‘leadership positions’) as well as the importance of playing roles and being models. Or was that ‘being role models’? We weren’t paying attention.

The UKRC director also noted that most research studies demonstrated “a positive relationship between board diversity and financial performance”. We think she meant broad diversity.

Quoting an obscure but highly PC McKinsey report from way back in the dark ages of 2007, Williams noted that once a company’s ten-person management committee reached “a threshold” of at least three women, “performance increases sharply”. Which we reckon is why Hugh Heffner has three girlfriends.

Exciting news for the fairer sex, however, is that apparently “Women are gaining public body appointments”, albeit with slow progress. Not to worry however, purportedly the UKRC is “active in promoting women onto public bodies” and intends to make sure “that gender equality on boards becomes a reality.” µ

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Women In Tech

I have worked in 5 tech firms and if I count the total number of DBAs, Devs, Network/VOIP Admins and PMs (which total somewhere close to ~40 people); ZERO were women, I have never seen one in the tech field and its not because we didn't hire them... it was because none had applied.

posted by : BassThatHz, 05 September 2008Complain about this comment
LMAO

OMG when I read "Broads Banned" I lol'd for real. Lollercoaster!!

posted by : jimmy2times, 05 September 2008Complain about this comment
Unfortunate that triteness should displace corrective push.

As many have pointed out, in a similar situation: The inferior opportunity of blacks means more a) malnutrition b) bullying and subjectivity to abuse c) deprivation of healthy development. This produces lower "scores", that "prove" "inherent inferiority". Only by putting in the work, in a single generation, to remove the abuse of god given worth, can that unequal opportunity be put behind us. It's cult-ural, not objectively fixed. Same with women: pressure 'em to fail, disallow their own successes, abuse authority/"rights" to enforce inequality, and the results "prove" they "haven't got the right stuff" (when in truth all that's been proven in god's eye is deliberate ignorance) Either we push the change that balances things, or the abuse of worth that has been established for millenia we continue. All the men who scream about the temporary and slight inequality of corrective action, won't say anything about the thousands of years of abuse we enforced against others... says a lot about 'em. Segregated schools (GENDER) seem to produce women who aren't "put-down", from what women have written and said (both north america and europe). "lack of pressure" "no bullying for computers" "WE were respected" "they take us seriously, unlike men" too many times seen that. Any time you see a man insisting that women need "protecting", it's his fundamental commitment to prevent women from being able to take care of themselves. If they're dependent on HIM, then his importance is secure, yes? stupid game, beneath humanity.

posted by : Captain Obvious, 05 September 2008Complain about this comment
Yes and no

Are there enough women in IT for my liking? No. Will there ever be: No. Reason: 1/2 women I know would rather stay at home and take care of their children and many of the others would rather avoid a sceince or tech related job. This shrinks the female talent pool available for IT jobs quite dramatically. It should be all about willing numbers not total numbers,,,

posted by : JDocs, 05 September 2008Complain about this comment
An inbalance of genders doesn't indicate sexism

I'm in college right now and my computer science class of 60 people has only 3 girls. Are they hitting the glass ceiling in high school?

posted by : Daniel, 05 September 2008Complain about this comment
Who Cares?

I am starting to think hey if they dont want to be in it who cares. Forcing them and drilling them to get them into it aint right either. Is this just a ploy or just unwanted babbling

posted by : Volkov956, 05 September 2008Complain about this comment
Highly unefficient

Women - please skip to the foot note. How can a species-gender that's only efficient for 3 weeks a month expect to get high positions within the industries? Plus, I've said it before, technology jobs often require the ability to use logic.... need I say more? They should wind their necks in and go bake me a cake. PS. Kittens.

posted by : Dan D, 05 September 2008Complain about this comment
Musings

Don't you generally get high up in tech by starting something then growing so big that you have a company with a board, with you as head? So it's women themselves holding themselves back in this case? That isn't the first or only time I guess.

posted by : W.-, 05 September 2008Complain about this comment
*yawn* another frikkin survey.

main problem is, that science and tech is not that "attractive" to the female population at large. so forcing the industry to take on women who aren't really interested in the role or pushing themselves forward in the industry is damaging to all sides. My other half is doing very well for herself, and has made a point of hiring female staff, but has been burned on several occasions. even she is conceeding that "too much estrogen doesn't work" and getting the male/female mix right is hard work. for women to get on in tech, they need to get on. it doesn't matter who is hiring, they will hire the best person for the job. male or female. example. lady number 1, who my g/f hired to be her second in command, ended up shagging the boss above my g/f to get a cushy position higher up the chain with a flashy job title, but is basicly now, a highly paid data entry clerk. this has been very very awkward for everybody for the last two years as they have been denying anything's been going on, and causing animosity on the floor as she seems to get "special treatment" without having earnt it. re- bonus time not exactly the greatest example of feminine achievement. lady number2, sparkled in the interview, but has learnt basicly nothing in the 3 years she's been doing this job, except what buttons to push, fails every industry qualification she gets pushed into doing, when at appraisal time, she claims, "she doesn't get enough oppertunity to better herself" due to lack of study , or interest in what, how, and why she's doing what she does. lady number 3, is good at her job, but has no interest of progressing herself. likes to do the mundane repeatative crap no-one else wants, but because she has been here the longest, thinks she runs the place. is unable to accept info, advice or direction from people younger than her as she has "more seniority" due to length of service, and age. so call me a sexist pig if you like, but in my expirience, the only thing holding women back, is themselves. women who want to get on with it, can. and do so. in any industry them desire. and i speak with expirience from the banking, research, finance, and academic areas of business. we don't need to be told that we're predudice. as to artificially single out one group in favour of another is what causes predudice in the first place. not being funny, but i think 99.9% of male techs wouldn't say no to a bit of female company on the same level as themselves. not just as a bit of skirt from HR that types in resumes' into the system and is bored by anything other than whats going on in the bigbrother house. just stop playing the sexium card at every turn. this is whats holding you back.

posted by : blameanythingbutyourself, 05 September 2008Complain about this comment
Boot babes

I've always said we need more boot babes. Double them and we all get happy. More boot babes More booty babes More boob babes Maybe this tech babe can lead this surge.

posted by : Erik, 05 September 2008Complain about this comment
Sexist!

Has she ever complained about the underrepresentation of men nurses? How about men school teachers? Baloney!

posted by : Augustine, 05 September 2008Complain about this comment
There's more to industry than tech jobs....

They're all over Marketing, FInance, Legal and HR, though. I think you're pushing at an open door. Women are hired for technical jobs if they apply. They also rise in the organization but all too often they divert into Marketing or something like that. It might be good idea to look at the totality of a company, not just take selective fields. You should then ask the ladies what they think is important. You might be surprised by the answers. BTW -- I've only worked with one black software engineer -- ever. This might need more attention than apparent gender anomolies since it just doesn't add up. Where are the other black people?

posted by : Martin, 05 September 2008Complain about this comment
Aww, they want, but nobody let's them

In my engineering high school, we had one to two girls per class. So what this report implies, is that this was because riot police was deplyed to fight off the huge crowd of 14 years old girls desperately trying to get in. I must have been out of school on that particular day. At my engineering college, where we had less than 1 girl per class. Again, there must have been throngs of them banging desperately against the mighty glass walls of the engineering college fortress, before being dispersed by male sexist pigs waving logarithmic rules and shouting the nastiest differential calculus formulas at them. Yeah, girls are dying to be techies, if only somebody would let them.

posted by : Vasek, 06 September 2008Complain about this comment
The whole article is misguided

The corporate world wheter tech or not is just designed to make as much money as fast as it can. There is nothing about 'tech' that explicitly favours anyone based on gender alone as any such strong predjudice would reduce any businesses effectiveness to the point of failure, so therefore it is already a self-fixing problem. We absolutely should not favoutr or disfavour anyone based on anything other than their ability to do the job. There is no such thing as 'positive discrimination' either because whether its positive or negative just depends on which group you're in. The solution is to really give everyone the same opportunities regardless of gender, which after having spent 30 years working in IT in both Europe and the US, it seems to me this is actually where were already at. The real problem is that there seem to be a whole body of women who whine loudly when they only get given the same opportunities as men. They don't believe in equality, they expect exceptions to be made for them just because they're famale. Thats the actual problem society needs to fix.

posted by : jusNiz, 06 September 2008Complain about this comment
How to fix all this

If your objection to women is that they sleep around, have babies, and are moody whinybutts five days a month, then hire qualified ugly menopausal nerdwomen, morons. Gee, we have to think for you off the job, too.

posted by : speedwell, 07 September 2008Complain about this comment
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