I work in IT. I am female. I've worked in IT for nearly seven years. During that time I have copped misogyny from every angle. There has been sledgehammer sexism:
"Welcome to Technical Support, GIRL speaking."
"Oh hai, can I speak to a technician?"
"You are, I am fully qualified to troubleshoot and resolve any connection issue you are experiencing."
"Thanks darl, but you wouldn't understand it coz it's technical, put me through to one of the guys."
There's been subtle sexism:
"Oh, you work in IT. What made you decide that as a career option?"
And plain, straight, undeniable misogyny:
"Love, get one of the boys to fix it. Your mouth would be better on the end of my dick, and your hands cooking my dinner."
Overtime I have developed coping mechanisms and strategies to deal with all of the above issues, and everything in between. In the first instance, I am quite adept at telling people that being a vagina owner doesn't preclude me from having technical skills. I try to use the word vagina as much as possible in these moments because it really makes people uncomfortable. Not like penis. You could drop 'penis' into a conversation and no one would feel like looking at their watch and wondering how long until they could run a mile (unless that sentence was "Have I told you about the gunk dripping from my penis lately?" in which case it's the topic not the word that is causing discomfort. In more ways than one.) No, VAGINA is a wonderfully powerful word. It is absolutely female but devoid of all those feelings usually associated with women like lust, desire, sex. A vagina is a thing that cannot be understood or dominated. It is not cute and pink like a 'pussy', nor does it hint at being something to be taken like 'snatch'. A vagina is dark, mysterious, maybe it's a bit hairy. Your mother had one but your teenage sister doesn't. Vaginas are not found in porn, but in anatomy books.
By using this word when educating a person on my technical ability I have immediately put them on the back foot by taking away all notions that as a female I am weak, ruled by emotion, and a thing to be conquered. (It's difficult to ask for help from someone you are trying to be superior to) Instead I have replaced their ideas with an unknown and made them feel just a little bit uncertain about how to proceed. This opens up the communication as the power play has been eliminated and I can move forward resolving their issue or obtaining the information I require.
The subtle sexism and the blatant misogyny have been harder to deal with. My mentor once said to me, "The most important thing you can learn is to pick your battles." Her words resonated through my mind for days before I came to the clear realisation that I, on my own, cannot fight and win every battle, but I can certainly fight and lose all of them. I eventually stopped throwing myself against the immovable objects not because I wasn't an unstoppable force, but because I would be more effective working on those things I could change.
Humour has been my greatest tool. In response to the blatant misogyny type, I like to respond by saying in a cool, calm voice "I'm sorry, I am currently unable to resolve your technical issue as the dishwasher needing unpacking, I was too busy shopping, and the local men's football team all required lattes after their three course meal. Please feel free to sit and twiddle your thumbs in front of your broken PC until you are ready to apologise for being completely crap."
And why did I decide on a career in IT? Well the market for receptionists, secretaries and home makers was just too difficult to get into so I went with fixing computers instead.
Dealing with sexism and misogyny is different for everyone. It took me nearly a decade to be comfortable with my responses and what works for me will not work for everyone. The good thing about being in a Brigade is that while you're resting, your compatriots are fighting their battles. And every battle won benefits us all. With enough of us, we can win this war.
Viva La Revolution! Viva La Feminism!
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5 comments:
Nice to see another woman in IT. Obviously, I've also been working in IT. For the last 4 years.
I've only ever copped the "can I talk to a tech" thing once, and never experienced any other kind of sexist bull from anyone. I have been completely startled by some of the callers.
Probably my favourite was a very well-spoken woman calling from Tasmania. Every word was enunciated very clearly. When I got to the part where I ask what the issue is, she replied "My computer's shit itself".
That's a great story! It's funny how many crazy calls you can accumulate over time.
In regards to copping flack in IT, I've noticed the negative attitudes never come from other IT people. :)
Sonja - it seems to be a real problem in the IT industry. I work in software development as a trainer, and I wish I had a dollar for every pompous accountant that thought I was there to make coffee and sell product.
Tek and I used to work at the same ISP support centre, and the 'put me onto a tech, darling' factor was high. I finally snapped one day when met with an incredulous "you're a tech support person?" and answered "no, Im the cleaner. I heard the phone ringing so I thought I'd pick it up"
Oh, accountants. My last manager was a bean-counter. He had some nasty opinions about IT people, mostly that all we ever want is the latest and greatest, and to throw money at issues until they go away. Thankfully he got over it fast, and we had a good working relationship going.
I've only ever worked on service desks for companies or government, never just the general public. Women weren't common, but we were always welcomed by the males on the teams.
As to the callers, I had a few "Oh, it's nice to hear a female voice!" calls, which always cheered me up.
Yay to working in IT. I studied comp sci at uni and worked as a programmer for a while, but have decided to work elsewhere in a more traditionally female field - not because of sexism, just because I want to.
Uni course had some subtle sexism going on, although I heard rumours of other women copping gross sexism. I didn't have any friends in the course, so it was all hearsay.
Worked in a pretty progressive environment, boss had prominent liberal feminist wife. However, I always seemed to end up being the one doing the communicating with the clients, and all that, whereas I would have preferred to just put my head down and code all day like the boys. I definitely had more skills than them with relating and compromising and translating technical terms into everyday language, so I probably was the best person for interfacing with clients, but for chrissake, if I could learn when being socialised as a girl, I'm sure these guys can pull their fingers out and learn as adults.
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