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Re: [PLUG] Philly Linux Chix
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On Tue, 13 May 2003, Chris Hedemark wrote:
> From the Philly Linux Chix site: "Any women interested is invited to
> subscribe to our mailing list" and "Philly Chix is a group that strives
> to create a friendly female only question, work, collaboration and
> discussion forum." or "Women who have been using linux for years, who
> are new to linux, or who are merely curious and want a female-only
> environment to ask questions are all welcome to join." or "Women only
> please"
>
> Does this seem inclusive to you? Do any of the guys feel welcome?
My impression was that Netaxs was about the only place that had women
techies and even there the situation was a bit odd by my standards.
During the time I went to PLUG meetings, I was frequently the only woman
who didn't come with a man. From what I hear from Temple U students,
most of the computer classes are male which is not what comp classes are
like in other parts according to friends (about 50/50 in the Boston
area). At Netaxs, one woman was run off by a rather rowdy co-worker;
one woman was promised promotion that didn't happen (health issues
probably played a part in that); one woman was told not to ask for
information from the people who could have given it to her (a jerk
problem rather than a sexist problem, just pretty costly to her skills
development).
The thing that helps women and minorities is being more than tokens in a
work place, having other examples around to watch to see what's unique
to their own work (problems an individual has may not be related to
sexism and lower expectations for women at all) and what is happening to
others like them on the job. It also gives the guys a fairer sample of
what women or minorities can do -- one woman who fucks up isn't all
women to them.
I feel that Philly is a hard place to be a woman techie. The people who
can tell me if it's me and my attitude or something more general will be
other women, but it's better to see them at work than to get together
for all women discussions outside that context. Some of us are jerks
and the problems we have at work have nothing to do with sexism, but
until there are a number of women working at most job sites, it's hard
to figure.
People who'd worked for Netreach and other ISPs before working for
Netaxs expressed some surprise at all the women techies (four, do we
count the tech support chick, or five). If that's general for tech jobs
in the area, then we're not going to have good ways to correct our own
attitudes when we're wrong about it being sexism.
I've certainly had male friends and advisors who have been wonderful,
and have found that other people were willing to accuse me of having
the guy friends I had of doing all my work, in one case, possibly as a
joke.
It appears to be harder to be a woman techie in Philly than in some other
parts of the country. I'd rather like to be wrong in this one, and I
don't really think the long range good thing is having women off only
talking to each other.
But if it's going to be useful in terms of being a woman techie and
getting along better with other techies by getting up to speed (when
necessary), then it's not such a bad thing. I don't know what women are
going to LUG meetings now, but it's not like it's going to take vast
numbers of members away if the female attendance is now what it was when
I went.
Some women like being the only woman on a job. I'm not really
comfortable with that myself.
And I hadn't heard about the new organization until these exchanges.
--
Rebecca Ore
http://mysite.verizon.net/rebecca.ore
_________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion -- http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug
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