Women in IT Archive

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Women dream of careers nowhere near the IT sector

– 29 February 2012Posted in: Career, Women in IT, Working in IT

In the Metro newspaper there was an article a couple of weeks ago regarding what kind of jobs men and women dream of and comparing that to where there is a shortage of competence in different job areas.

In the left column we read professions such as Engineer, Developer, IT-architect followed further down in the list by tester and testleader within the IT-industry. These are the jobs that companies are searching high and low for people to employ.

The list in the middle states the jobs men dream of. In second place we find Engineer, only beaten by Entrepreneur taking place as the number one dreamjob. So far, there is a good match between the needs of the industry and the desires of men to work in this area. Other jobs also on the list are for example pilot, photographer, adventurer and inventor. Quite a broad range of titles I would say.

Furthest to the right we find the sad list of the jobs women dream of. I say sad, because even though doctor, veterinarian, author and human relations manager are all respectable jobs, it is a bad omen for the IT-industry that no IT-roles what so ever made it to this list.

Once again it is painfully evident that we have a very, very long way to go to ensure that we get more women in IT. If IT-jobs are not even something women dream of, then they will of course never consider it as a career.

So the million dollar question becomes: How do we get more women in IT? Well, I have a few ideas up my sleeve, which I will share with you readers throughout the year. So stay tuned!

 

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“IT-tjej” – new Facebook page

– 28 February 2012Posted in: Social Media, Women in IT, Working in IT

May I present the new Facebook page for the Swedish Women in IT community “IT-tjej”. It has been a lot of fun playing around with it. For the Facebook tab application I used Pagemodo which has a lot of nice templates to this purpose.

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Swedens only female Game Developer?

– 27 February 2012Posted in: Women in IT, Working in IT

Last weeks biggest faux pas in the media was without a doubt an article in the Metros newspaper’s  student edition which was titled “Swedens only female Game Developer”.

It was an interview with 29-year old Sara Persson who works as a game developer in souther Sweden. The journalist portraits this young lady as being the countries most unique game developer, because she’s the only female in the business (!!!).

The article leaves a lot of room for suspicion that Sara didn’t actually get the question whether she indeed is the only female game developer in Sweden, but more to how it feels to work as a woman in an industry dominated by men.

The reaction from the readers was both swift and brutal. Discussions on Facebook and Twitter flourished and both men and women took a stand against an article which disregards all women who in fact work as game developers.

It is painfully evident that the journalist didn’t make his (yes, it was a man) research for the interview even one tiniest bit. However, it makes me more sad than angry that even without the support of statistics of gender within the IT-industry, this individual didn’t even question the fact that it must have sounded odd that he found the only female game developer in a country where Gaming companies have been sprouting out of the ground in the last couple of years. Is it so natural to think that this is a tetosterone only working environment?

The editor in Chief went out with an appology after a couple of hours and the article was even removed from the online website, but the discussion is still going on in social media.

I know we don’t have that many women in the IT-industy, but could we please atleast not diminish the ones we already have? It isn’t exactly helping our struggle towards attracting more young women to choose this occupation.

(And seriously, what’s up with all the fluffy animals in the picture!? How is that supposed to convey a sense of respect and competence?)

 

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Eurovision stupifies women

– 25 February 2012Posted in: Life, Tech stuff, Women in IT, Working in IT

It’s Eurovision Song Contest season here in Sweden, and the tryouts are engaging everyone, old and young alike. Sweden takes a lot of pride in our participation in this event, but we are a long way from the days of glory when we won the entire thing with Abba (Waterloo, 1974), Carola (Fångad av en stormvind, 1991),  and Charlotte Nilsson (Take me to your heaven, 1999).

Last year the Eurovision final was held in Germany, and the TV-show was led by two women and one man. They were doing a pretty decent job for the most part, until they did something that almost made me fall of my chair.

In one scene, the lady in red was holding her microphone upside down looking sheepishly into the camera. The man, the expert, the know-it-all of course came to her rescue, showing her how to really hold the microphone and uttered the words “well, you know women and technology don’t go well together” (!!!) The two women giggled a bit and nodded in embarrassment.

Seriously???!! The people (I’ll bet $100 on it being guys) who wrote that script should be fired on the spot and their bosses need to get their heads screwed on straight! It made me and my friends so furious that evening that it ruined the entire fun with the competition.

I truly hope that this years Eurovision Song Contest, being broadcast from Azerbadzjan won’t entail any such idiotic nonsense.

 

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Birthday cards with pink laptops

– 23 February 2012Posted in: Life, Women in IT, Working in IT

I was in the bookstore a couple of days ago, looking for a birthday card for my sister-in-law. As I browsed through the different available cards I noticed these, aimed at young teenagers I presume.

In all honesty, I am not very surprised that the “boys-card” features a gaming tough, kid, with the big computer screen, cool speakers, the high-graphic motor game, pizza and jolt (?) cola on the floor. This is the absolute definition of a classical computer wizz kid in the making.

The girl on the other hand has a pink laptop, fashion-magazines sprawling on the floor, a nice cup of hot tea while she’s (I’m guessing) chatting away with her friends on Facebook.

Perhaps I should be glad that she has a computer at all in the picture, which in some sense conveys the image of an interest in technology. However, I would be a lot more impressed if the graphical artist had used the apparent interest of fashion for this girl and perhaps shown how she was working on her on clothing line in a design program or such.

We need to move away from the notion that boys = cool, tech-kids playing the latest computer games, while girls = pink, fluffy fashion only interesting in reading blogs and chatting. We need to start somewhere, and this seems to me to be a very good place. Subtle, yet powerful.

If we want more women in tech in the future, then we need to start encouraging the kids at a young age…

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Computer Engineer Barbie – my bookshelf trophy

– 04 February 2012Posted in: Women in IT, Working in IT

I was never a Barbie-girl. As a child I preferred Lego, My little Pony, Forrest Family and more, but I never like Barbie. I even remember one Christmas where my sister got the coolest hippest My Little Pony (well in my eight year old eyes it was!) while I got a Barbie in a fancy dress. My sad puppy eyes had my mother rectify the problem the next day by taking me to the toy store and returning the doll in favour of a pink horse, with wings. I was as happy as I could be and I never got a Barbie ever again.

Now, as an adult, I proudly display my very first Barbie in my bookshelf. Well why shouldn’t I? It’s Computer Engineer Barbie, complete with her own laptop and smartphone. I strongly believe that if we are to encourage more women to consider careers in the IT-business we need to make the notion of women as carriers of technology know-how as something natural. Perhaps Computer Engineer Barbie will spark a tech-interest in young girls and open a new world of possibilities for them. It is our responsibility as adults to change the view of women in IT, beginning with our children.

At least I know exactly what I will give my niece M when she turns five later this year!

 

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Sneak-peak of a new Facebook page

– 30 January 2012Posted in: Social Media, Women in IT, Working in IT

This weekend I have spent a lot of time working on a new Facebook page for the Swedish Women in IT blog community which I am a part of (www.ittjej.se). I can easily loose my self in working on tab app designs, Facebook strategies etc, it’s all so much fun! The page should be ready for launch soon, it just need a few more tweaks. In the mean time, here is a sneak-peak on the final result.

What do you think makes a compelling Facebook page?

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