Plan E
Because Plans A-D aren't usually interesting enough.
Friday 3 November 2006, 8:22 PM
Women working in technology
Last night found me at the Women In Technology Awards held at Billingsgate Market in London, about 10 mins walk from our offices here at ZDNet UK (although 10 mins felt a lot longer in the killer heels I was wearing - next time I will follow the example of the sensible half of our party and get a cab).
An obsersvation - there were 12 of us there: 4 boys, 6 girls. Of the boys, Tom had a bowtie that wouldn't sit properly, Matt forgot the buttons to do up his dress shirt, so Mike had to lend him one of his and then we resorted to safefy pins, and Ritchie, who hasn't yet set up a Biog here (he's our FD in case you wondered, and is clearly shy) was wearing a kilt. He is Scottish tho so that was allowed.
I'm not aware of any disasters amongst the girls so clearly the moral is that you don't have to be a woman to work in technology, but when it comes to dressing up, it helps. Mind you, three of us turned up wearing the same dress which made me think that the awards should have been renamed The Stepford Wives In Technology just for us.
It was a good evening, although I did think that this may be the one event in the year that I went to where they would have organised enough female toilets to not have to queue.
Clearly, I was wrong, and ended up using the mens as usual.
What it did remind me, is that I am really very lucky to work for a technology-centric company where there is absolutely no evidence of discrimination against women at all. At least half of our broad management team is female, and the UK board that I sit on is exactly 50/50. In fact, if you fancy working here (male or female!) get in touch.
I don't consider myself a feminist by any stretch of the imagination, but was shocked to learn that at present, women still make up only 22% of the hi-tech workforce. You can see it on this site too - the majority of our readers and members are men, and we've got so used to it that we just consider it normal.
So here's a plea to the women out there who are working in tech and reading this post. The ZDNet UK community, like the company that works behind it, is aggresively gender neutral. This is a place for you to to be heard too - join in and have your say.
Finally, congratulations to last nights winners.
An obsersvation - there were 12 of us there: 4 boys, 6 girls. Of the boys, Tom had a bowtie that wouldn't sit properly, Matt forgot the buttons to do up his dress shirt, so Mike had to lend him one of his and then we resorted to safefy pins, and Ritchie, who hasn't yet set up a Biog here (he's our FD in case you wondered, and is clearly shy) was wearing a kilt. He is Scottish tho so that was allowed.
I'm not aware of any disasters amongst the girls so clearly the moral is that you don't have to be a woman to work in technology, but when it comes to dressing up, it helps. Mind you, three of us turned up wearing the same dress which made me think that the awards should have been renamed The Stepford Wives In Technology just for us.
It was a good evening, although I did think that this may be the one event in the year that I went to where they would have organised enough female toilets to not have to queue.
Clearly, I was wrong, and ended up using the mens as usual.
What it did remind me, is that I am really very lucky to work for a technology-centric company where there is absolutely no evidence of discrimination against women at all. At least half of our broad management team is female, and the UK board that I sit on is exactly 50/50. In fact, if you fancy working here (male or female!) get in touch.
I don't consider myself a feminist by any stretch of the imagination, but was shocked to learn that at present, women still make up only 22% of the hi-tech workforce. You can see it on this site too - the majority of our readers and members are men, and we've got so used to it that we just consider it normal.
So here's a plea to the women out there who are working in tech and reading this post. The ZDNet UK community, like the company that works behind it, is aggresively gender neutral. This is a place for you to to be heard too - join in and have your say.
Finally, congratulations to last nights winners.
PreviousComments on this post
Although we didn't win the award for Best Company Advancing Women in Tech, it was great to be nominated. Thats speaking as a man however - i know the women on the team were much more competitively offended by the result.
And on the button issue with my shirt ... you think it was a mistake. It was actually a ploy to standout as different.
Hilarious - are there any pictures?
