----- Original Message -----
From: curious <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2000 12:23 AM
Subject: [issues] Skud's new article on geek chicks..
> http://freshmeat.net/news/2000/02/05/949813140.html
[snip]
> I felt she was alittle more defensive then she needed twards the end..
> end.. when she breaks out "roles available to women" I think it
> perpetuates the xy->do these things and xx->do these things...
Possibly. But she's right on the money when she says that the geek world
undervalues these things, and that they are to a large degree missing.
In my experience, the presence of women in responsible roles in any
undertaking (my background before I became tech-ified is in the theatre, and
it's as true there as anywhere) can go a long way to helping:
* The overall cohesion of the project
* Maintaining a much more... uh, human experience
* Expanding the breadth and depth of vision, particularly in how actions
etc. will be perceived by others.
All this *on top of* the systemically-based factor that, as Charlotte
Whitton (my home town's first woman mayor) once put it, "a woman has to be
twice as good as a man at the same job."[*]. This means that in a typical
business situation, a woman is likely to have at least as good -- and
frequently better -- technical skills as a man in the same position.[**}
[* "Fortunately," she continued, "that's not very hard."]
[** I suspect that this dynamic will only change when men learn to rise to
meet the same expectations as those placed on women. This is based on
nothing but gut instinct, mind you. But, if we consider the difficulties
women frequently face when they're merely competent, and consider as well
that when equality arrives in a particular workplace, the standard of work
will necessarily have risen, I think it has some likelihood of coming true.
On consideration, the first sentence of the paragraph above could be open to
contention. I expect that part of meeting expectations will entail making
them realistic -- accepting, for example, that working 70+ hour weeks is not
socially sustainable, regardless of one's gender.]
--
Dan McGarry
http://www.moodindigo.com/
************
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
