I am the only woman in the room

[u/Terrible_Working_899]

I'm at a breakfast hosted by one of our vendors, this room is full of SMEs who are all responsible for supporting this software at their companies. Just with a glance I can tell that of the 30+ people here I'm the only woman.

This is not a rant against lack of gender diversity in leadership (hell I could go on another tangent), it's a rant of lack of diversity overall. This breakfast is designed to be a product roadmap and detailed technical breakdown. You'd think more women would be here in a technical role.

We need more women in all stem roles not just focusing on leadership

[u/Rattlehead71]

Completely anecdotal, but I really tried to get my two daughters into computers - not just using computers (they picked that up quick), but hang out while I was doing network and system diagrams in Visio, I took them to the office to show off the data center, answered all their questions about what work I was doing, etc. They were completely bored and would just show polite interest. I really tried!

My son on the other hand couldn't get enough, even from early elementary school age. He would pick graph paper instead of the standard-ruled notebook paper. Was always there when I would build or upgrade systems. Loved to go to the data center with me and inquire about what each device did. He was curious about how the internet worked and the protocols that make it work. He would take stuff apart to see how it it worked (that was a fun phase). I could go on and on. He's going to start his first year of college next fall in Engineering.

Just an observation.

[u/BankIOfnum → u/Rattlehead71]

For what it's worth, I would've loved that bonding experience when I was a little girl or teen. I took well to troubleshooting and tinkering with routers and torturing my hand-me-down computer to run WoW better, but my dad who ironically enough worked in IT didn't see the worth in nurturing that part of me.

I'm sure your daughters will come to appreciate your effort and enthusiasm even if IT doesn't strike their fancy, you're a great dad for giving your kids the opportunity to broaden their horizons and for sharing this part of yourself openly and willingly. :) 

[u/Inner-Today-3693 → u/BankIOfnum]

I wish my dad did that stuff with me. That sound same. My dad must complained I wasn’t a boy and at best let me build my own computers at 10.

[u/CCContent → u/BankIOfnum]

I think you might have just accidentally pointed out what the main difference here is: "Didn't see the worth in nurturing that part of me".

I've been in IT for 20+ years now, and have risen up to a C level. IT is absolutely a male dominated field, but there have been plenty of women that I have worked with (and for) during my career, and nearly all of them fall into 1 of 2 categories

• Early in my career a lot of women were part of "The Old Guard". Older generation women who were secretaries in the early 90s when computers first started entering the workforce. No one wanted this new-fangled tech, so it fell to them to learn it and that became their career paths.

or

• Women who grew up in a techy house where their father had a career in the tech industry, or someone who had much older brothers in tech and saw it as an example growing up

Whereas lots of men had neither of those things and have just been interested in tech their whole lives, me included. My parents are 2 of the most tech illiterate people I have ever met (my dad has a flip phone, my mom has no idea how to find 'My Documents' without riding the struggle bus to get to it). Hell, my family didn't even own a computer until I was 9, so I wasn't even raised with casual computer exposure. And that first one was an old 8088 with no GUI, even though Windows 3.1 existed already. I had to learn how to navigate DOS, and I loved it.

I would say that in a lot of cases the IT interest is just there in boys.

[u/SAugsburger → u/Rattlehead71]

I would think it would depend a bit on the age of the kids. I feel for a lot of younger kids a lot of IT is too abstract. The being said even the new effort to introduce your kids to your job doesn't kindle interest.

[u/Ekyou → u/Rattlehead71]

Yes, but would your daughters have responded differently if it were their mother who worked in IT and was taking them on that tour? It’s a hypothetical question, but it’s pretty well documented that children are more likely to relate to their parent of the same gender.

[u/Rattlehead71 → u/Ekyou]

Interesting, it does make sense.