Until the age of 26, I was employed as a technology consultant by a small firm that served the financial industry. I built servers and workstations, mostly for banks, and in a happy foreshadowing of my future writing for Bloomberg View, I installed some of the first PC-based Bloomberg terminals for a Japanese firm’s office in New York.
Finance back then was heavily male, as it is now. And technology, the same. At the intersection of the two … well, I can count on one hand all the women I worked with directly during almost four years of consulting.
It was very male-centric. I heard about client outings, involving strippers, to which I was obviously not invited. And the sexual harassment (entirely from clients, not colleagues), could be spectacular.
Which has nothing to do with why I left. This will make me sound a bit dim, but at the time, it never occurred to me that being a female in this bro ecosystem might impinge my ultimate career prospects. Nor did I miss having women in the room. I liked working with the bros just fine. And the sexual harassment, while annoying, was just that: annoying. I cannot recall that it ever affected my work, nor that I lost any sleep over it.
No, the reason I left is that I came into work one Monday morning and joined the guys at our work table, and one of them said “What did you do this weekend?”
Good thing that Megan McArdle doesn’t work for Gulagle … because she’d have been summarily FIRED for saying she lacked the dedication to do her IT job like one of the boys. How DARE she acknowledge her drive and passion for the work was inferior to “the bros”. Heretic! She’s a WITCH! Burn her! Burrrnnnnn HER!
I actually commend her for recognizing she was not working with “her people”. That is MY phrase. I like living and being surrounded by “my people”. No, it has nothing to do with racial identity. It has everything to do with CULTURE (or lack therof, in people who are NOT “my people”).
Minimizing or highlighting gender differences is situation dependent and often highly self-serving.
When people clamor for more female executives or political leaders, the stated justification is that women do behave differently and that it is a good thing for all concerned – Vive La Différence!
When the outcome is potentially negative for females, gender differences are readily accepted. Over 96% of federal prisoners are male. Where is the feminist outcry against this ‘self-evident systemic discrimination’ against males or for gender parity in our prison population?
I must be dead. Sane, rational thought detailed in writing by a human somewhere? I must be dead, and this must be an alternate reality afterlife. An article like that is not possible in the real world. Not at Time, not at NYT. Not on Facebook. Not on utube. Nowhere.
T’would be nice if more women be happy that there are many wonderful men who are looking out for them.
I believe that it was man who invented all the labor saving appliances such as the washing machine, the electric stove, the vacuum cleaner, the vibrator, the car … the hair dryer and pretty much everything else.
If not for good men …. women would not have the time for a career.
I read this earlier today as it was shared around Twitter. It’s rational, sane, self-reflective and honest.
She’s basically saying that for her it was a J-O-B and not an obsession in contract to her male co-workers.
contract = contrast.
Comment on Warren K Smith,
That’s what I pulled from this.
This my own experience in engineering (as a male). I loved it, but not obsessed. I remember when a great engineer in another discipline asked me to look over his thesis for his masters. I understands his reasons, as I was certainly the most analytical person he knew, but all I could do was correct he grammar. He was that much above me. He subsequently had a lot of success in silicon valley. Unfortunately I lost touch with him. My brother in law is also a top engineer. No understanding of these social justice issues, but he works for himself so he doesn’t care.
P.S. I gave up – Decent engineer, but i became an excellent Chartered Accountant.
Kate – how dare you link to an article that says men and women are different? Don’t you know it’s only sexism that keeps women out of the computer field, not some natural inclination. And don’t you know that men can have babies. And a 300 pound hulk in a dress with a woody has a right to change with 10 year old girls. And 5 year old boys should wear dresses if they show a tranny inclination. How sick are you? Sarcasm!
The memo and the research it is based on is not that women are not able to be techs/engineers for biological reasons ; it is that women *prefer* to not do those jobs if given a choice. Those preferences are likely based on biology. I know it sounds like splitting hairs but there is a difference.
A analogy from CAGW. News headline : The oceans are acidifying—DOOM!!! Reality: oceans are becoming slightly less basic and only very slightly, substantially less than daily and seasonal variability.
The takeaway for me on the Google memo is that most of those hyperventilating and outraged either didn’t read the memo or didn’t understand it. Their understanding is entirely from second and third hand information. I think this explains why science is in trouble and pseudoscience and pseudointellectualism is on the rise.
There is an upside. You now know which journalists, media organizations, politicians, scientists and CEOs are not credible. They have proven themselves dishonest for deliberately misinterpretating the memo or incompetent for not understanding it. I used a similar sorting mechanism for Palin critics. Those who provided valid, thoughtful criticism, snobs who were mocking class differences and assholes who viciously went after her and her family. These controversies reveal many things.
As for working in overwhelmingly male environments I noticed that every conversation, no matter how innocent the original topic, eventually becomes x-rated. Ditto for gossip. Women generally are PG-14. Men also argue for the sake of arguing and fun while the office women were more likely to nod and agree with each other. Perhaps that only happens in blue collar trades and in a work environment that was very male oriented (97% men in the 1200 person union local when I started) but I doubt it.BTW, this was almost always good natured banter, not harassment. Men are funnier, occasionally intentionally.
I quit because there was far too much overtime that negatively affected my other responsibilities and irreconcilable differences with management.
Women are generally PG13..
BULLSHIT – you mean women are PG13 when amongst men. Saying anything else makes you an outright liar.
Yep. Women can be downright raunchy when they get going. #NOTALLWOMEN
You can be as obnoxious as you want but that is my experience. Women, in comparison to men, have tamer and less funny conversations. I have one female friend who is crude and funny but she’s the exception.
I must admit that I am amused by the irony of you claiming women’s conversations are exactly like men’s given the context of this blog entry and the discussion on gender differences/preferences pertaining to groups, not individuals.
My adult daughter and son have potty mouths. Both live at home. I choose not to “correct” any vocabulary as I have my own moments.
Engineering is pretty dry. Humour gets one through the day.
The wife worked at a bakery owned by woman, only one male staff out of 7.
Situational.
Daughter is red seal chef in male dominated business. She’s had her fill.
I’ve worked in kitchens, on equity trading floors and in the patch. Frankly I’m surprised I can still speak coherent English.
Any proof of gender differences need look no further than a couple loading a dishwasher….
As someone who works as a software engineer in Silicon Valley, I assure you that what she wrote is spot on.
So very, very, true … my wife has the organizational skills of a chimpanzee. And even when she’s botched the job so badly that the racks don’t roll and the door won’t close … she tells me there is something wrong with the dishwasher …
Now … shall we discuss loading the car trunk for a trip ?
Amen, Kenji and Cam; SWMBO couldn’t fit a 1 cu.ft block in a 2 cu. ft hole, but man, can she ever organize the hole digging planning party… 😉 (Not to mention the after-party)
Warren,
#NOTALLWOMEN
Why don’t you like tall women?
🙂
Kenji, thanks for all your excellent comments on Kate’s blog. Enjoy reading them, especially about the craziness of California.
scar, you are onto something that is going on here. Megan recognized that there are fundamental differences between men and women other than the physical obvious and she should be applauded. James Damore ran afoul of the current cultural Marxist effort to neuter the two mankind beings.
By the way, all the sick tranny manipulations of society will not change the fundamentals.
I agree. I worked in tech and loved the tech, but the culture and faux political correctness was more than I could stand. I’m male, white and was middle aged.
There were few people of similar interests.
Anyway, life is good and I’m a happy old white man. I still fiddle with the tech and go hunting, shooting and fishing when I get the chance.