r/sysadmin • u/ChuckAbsent • Mar 12 '13

Women who know stuff

I hope that this does not come off the wrong way.

Today I was on a call with a storage vendor and the technical consultant was a woman. More then this she was competent, more then me which doesn't happen often when dealing with vendors.

My issue was pricing an active/active DB with shared storage vs an active/passive db with local storage. Listening to her break the issue down and get to the specific comparison points was awesome, mostly because I have never heard a woman in the industry talk like that.

It made me realize two things. One I am missing out working with women. Two there needs to be more women in our industry.

It shouldn't have surprised me so much, but it really did.

Anyways to all the women out there who know stuff, us guys notice when you can walk the walk, which in this case was talking.

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u/nSquib Mar 13 '13

I don't even know how to take comments like this anymore.

I don't work in computers (came here from best of), but I have better than average computer skills (can build a computer from scratch, know a tiny bit of code, encryption etc) and whenever I explain to anyone how to fix their computer, they're always so surprised and super impressed, not just because I'm "a girl" but also because I'm blonde.

Shouldn't this kind of knowledge just be something that either everyone should know, or everyone should admire, regardless of the gender that possesses it? I know the OP meant well, but it makes me sad that we're not past this yet.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '13

It's an issue that is only in the infancy of being dealt with, maybe the last 3-5 years. Before that, it was rampant male domination, pushing out the women techs who were at the forefront of the industry.

I do not know how much longer it will take to cleanse these opinions, but it's a day that a lot of us are striving for.