[TriLUG] The biggest deterrent for women in tech
Danielle
Danielle at whitrel.com
Wed May 1 22:27:38 EDT 2013
On 2013-05-01 18:47, bak wrote:
> I found Fine's _Delusions of Gender_ and Jordan-Young's _Brain Storm_
> to be very effective at getting to the root of the neuroscience
> behind
> "men and women have different brains". Fascinating reads.
Added on my Kindle now. I'm certain I shall find them interesting; a
year ago I took Anthropology 440 at UNC to satisfy a core requirement
because the topic of the course, Gender and Culture, interested me.
> There isn't much, if any, evidence to support strong claims made by
> folks talking about "traditionally this way" and "naturally
> different".
I certainly agree, and my own lived experience agrees. I enjoy, if we
can call it that, the unique individual perspective of experiencing
working as a SysAdmin in both sides of the binary: I am a transgender
individual who transitioned from male to female (a trans woman) in the
midst of my career. I observed that when I was perceived by my coworkers
as a cis[1] man I was privileged with far more automatic acceptance than
when I came to be perceived by my coworkers as a cis woman. In my
employment since transition, in order to have acceptance of my technical
ability, I have had to prove myself to a level that I would subsequently
realize was higher than what subsequently hired male coworkers were held
(and, often, whom I trained/mentored.)
I know that I am incredibly fortunate with my current management, who
does a fantastic job of recognizing my professional performance and
accomplishments. This has helped to erase disadvantages I suffered over
the years, such as being the victim of a 33% pay gap in my immediately
previous job (state employment; I was reorged into a position with
higher duties and my management was distinctly hostile to my attempts to
negotiate for an adjustment of my salary commensurate with my new duties
and level of performance thereof) but it does not erase the opportunity
cost of that disadvantage - the lost cumulative benefits to pension
savings, etc.
I hasten to add here that I am very much aware of my privilege. In
spite of several axes on which I face oppression - a lesbian, trans
woman in tech - I have significant axes of privilege that largely serve
to mitigate the effect of the oppression in my life. As trans* people
go, I consider myself among the 1% - having a level of income and
standard of living that few others are likely to ever obtain or regain.
This is why I'm comfortable being "out but reserved" about this fact of
my history - I will discuss it when germane, which I feel it is here.
[1] This might be an obscure term in this context, but it is far from
new; it is the opposite of trans.
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