Why does this always happen in the morning, when I’m crabbier than usual?
I don’t generally answer the phones much, because… well, I’m special, and I don’t want to. Ok, maybe not. But I tend to do more second level stuff, so on and so forth, and hey, this is why we have the new guy. New guys are great.
But, I answered the phone this morning, and it’s a nice sounding southern woman. She asks to speak to someone technical. Alrighty, a bad assumption, but I can work with it.
Me: No problem! I can answer any questions you have.
Lady: [insert totally vague question here]
Me: [insert somewhat vague answer here, with some extra questions to get more details about her project so I could give a better answer]
Lady: Maybe I should talk to someone really technical.
The funny thing was she was asking a question that was server-related. Around the office, we all have different strengths. CSS questions tend to go to one person, weird “I need to make the software do this” questions go to another… and server questions tend to come to me. So, she really was talking to the best person to answer her question. Lucky!
And this is by no means a complaint about her — she was very polite about it, and really was just trying to get an answer to a question that couldn’t really be answered with the details she had. I suggested she have her tech guy call us, and we’d be able to answer any questions he had…
But y’know? I’m getting really tired of people assuming that I don’t know shit. I can guarantee that if one of the guys had answered, she wouldn’t have asked — twice! — to talk to someone “more technical”.
It’s possible I’m a little oversensitive to this. But, I’ve worked in some form of technical capacity for … oh, about eleven years. And this happens All. The. Freaking. Time. And I’ve checked — it doesn’t happen to anyone else around here. Yes, I’m the only girl.
One of my favorite calls was when I was doing first level tech support at an ISP in Victoria when I was about 19. For the out-of-towners, Victoria’s demographic includes newlyweds, nearlydeads, and flowerbeds. The gentleman calling was, guessing by his voice, in the second category.
Me: Thank you for calling [insert former employer here] technical support, my name is Donna, how can I help you?
Guy on Phone: Support, please.
Me: This is support, what can I do for you today?
Guy on Phone: A chick? *click*
Oh, how I laughed…
Ok, how I laugh now. At the time, I was mortified and sputtering so badly that it took a good two minutes for anyone else to understand what I was sputtering about.
Tech support culture just hasn’t caught up with you.
If you were in tech marketing, though, it’d be the other way around. Most of the marketing pros I’ve worked with at places like AMD and Dell and IBM, at all levels of the hierarchy, have been women.
But sexism is pervasive, and extends all through the tech world in both gross and subtle forms. Riddle me this, Batman: Can you name a tech corporation with annual revenues exceeding $5 billion that was founded by a woman?
No — but then, I doubt I could name many men in the same position. :)
I did tech support for 3d animation software, way back when, and found that the callers (generally geeky animation guys who never talked to girls, just to continue the theme of stereotyping) were thrilled at the novelty of a female doing tech support. At least they were happy about it, but it did get a tad annoying to hear the surprise in their voices, like they’d found a talking cat or something.
heh, I didn’t mention the marriage proposals I’ve had. At this point, we’re up to … 16, I think. I don’t think they realize that that’s not a compliment. :)
Wow, a talking cat? That would be cool. I’m sure my cat is just telling me off all the time for being a bad slave.
As for the real topic at hand, you know I can relate. I’ve always felt this need to work extra hard to prove myself, just because of the general assumption that women shouldn’t be as good at coding, etc. It hasn’t been that bad, but there are a few times where I realize that I’m being talked to like I’m a “girl” as opposed to a “professional” or “colleague”.
Luckily not at my office, though; we’re pretty progressive. We now count 5 female developers (or, 4 plus me, the DBA) out of under 20 developers. It’s good to have some women around, just for the estrogen quotient.
Well, it’s easy to name men in that position; you just look at every major tech corporation and ask yourself who founded it. Lotus, Adobe, Google, Apple, Oracle, IBM, Cisco, Intel, AMD, Dell, HP, etc etc etc — nothing but male founders as far as the eye can see. There’s your list.
What I’m saying is that breaking the glass ceiling is hard because tech culture trickles down from the top… and it’s *always* men at the top.
But I think the best solution to this kind of sexism is not to ask existing companies to change, because that will happen far too slowly. The best solution is for women to create their own companies and let *their* culture trickle down.
And I think it’s a shame that happens so very rarely. A female-founded Google or two would do the cause of women in the tech world a great deal of good.
aw heck, it was a trick question? Dang, I was hoping there actually was one… :)
Men are always on top of corporations because they don’t give birth and they are ruthless. Women sacrifice their careers for families and they are not ruthless, competitive and have consciences.
Oh, I call bullshit on that. Blaming gender stereotypes does nothing good. Lots of women — me included — have no interest in having a family. I’m not particularly ambitious (I have no interest in running a company, blargh) but that doesn’t have a darn thing to do with my gender.