At 09:05 AM 01/06/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>
>As for gender-based discrimination, I have to say that I personally haven't
>encountered it here in so obvious a way than described in previous posts.
>We actually have a higher than average ratio of female IT staff. I have
>also been lucky enough to find "mentors" that have encouraged me to pursue
>my career and to realize my worth. This was probably one of the most
>important factors in my success so far. Self confidence is hard to come by
>sometimes.
>
This is my story, too. I got into computers from applications, then
suddenly found myself at an ISP in a very foreign country. Had a great
boss who felt I was wasted there, so pushed me into tech support, web
design, etc. and appointed me Cat Herder for the Engineering Department
(wonder why the Japanese work such long hours.....).
For discrimination, try being an older female person in a racist, agist and
sexist society. Never a problem within the company -- Japanese and gaijin
engineers and tech staff were great at not only teaching, but accepting
leadership from older female gaijin.
Clients, otoh, could be a pain. It was not rare to go on a site visit and
have the client speak only to the male sales rep, though he had to turn to
me for the response every time. The shock to visitors when a male (often
the Boss) made and served refreshments was clearly visible, and cost us
contracts. While it was not just Japanese callers who demanded to speak to
"someone who knows about this" if they got a female voice on a support
call, the shock to many Japanese clients who visited tech support and
found it a mix of women and *black* men was often almost comic. And,
dealing with an obaa-san (grandmother!) heading a site design team put a
real strain on the old "face"....
We ( as we grew, there were other women hired) were lucky to have a
Boss-chan who was committed to respect for employees, regardless of race,
gender, age et alia. Without Roger, I am quite sure that several of us
would never have developed the kind of expertise that made our company a
hot property in the extremely competitive Tokyo market. Funny thing is
that he is not in any way a feminist -- he saw it entirely as the necessary
environment to promote the best for the benefit of the company.....
************
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