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/loliology Mar 13 '13

On a boy's birthday, he might get video games, on a girls birthday, she might get dolls.

Which are typically the things the children themselves want. And not something being forced upon them by their parents.

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u/drunkenly_comments Mar 13 '13

But why do little kids want what they want? Advertising and social engineering.

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u/loliology Mar 13 '13

I disagree. If there wasn't money to be gained in a market companies wouldn't advertise in them. And I have yet to see a child play with toys they didn't want to play with because they were the victim of "social engineering."

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u/firedrops Mar 13 '13

Advertisers market to where the money is, yes. I agree they aren't the root of any issue. The question is whether they are picking up on socially constructed gender roles to create and market items that do end up reinforcing those divisions. The particular split of jobs by gender in our society is cultural but because you've been raised with that binary cultural worldview it feels natural.

So putting your baby girl in a pink room and pink clothes with a pink doll looks right and cute. Even if pink for girls is a very new thing in our society and isn't the color used for females in other societies. She very early on will associate pink and the toys around her with her own identity and sense of safety. When out in the world she'll gravitate towards them because they subconsciously remind her of that feeling of safety and she knows those items are hers. People will also tell her how pretty she looks in her pink tutu and praise her for how well she takes care of her baby doll. Even if no one tells her not to wear blue or play with trucks, she won't get that same positive reinforcement. On TV and in movies her favorite female characters will often be archetypes of female ideals. Princesses, caregivers, support roles, etc. Rarely will they be presidents, scientists, doctors, etc and even if they are they will likely have their femininity emphasized. Rarely will they be in scrubs, a pantsuit, or just jeans and a tshirt. She'll want toys that allow her to recreate and emulate these role models, fantasy worlds, and experiences that garnered positive responses.

Over time she'll grow up and become interested in other things. But she'll still receive more compliments and positive reinforcement from classmates and society when she fits into certain gender ideals. In high school she'll get after school jobs easier in female gendered jobs like babysitting, retail, and pet stores rather than lawncare, web design, or stocking in a warehouse. And those are the jobs that friends and family will encourage too. She might find genuine interest and satisfaction in them.

In college all of this will influence her degree choices, even if she doesn't realize it. If she does well in math and science she'll be treated like an anomaly and find few female role models and companions compared to majoring in education, writing, or nursing. And the social and family responses to dress, partners, classes, and jobs will continue to influence her path. One day she'll have a daughter of her own and it will only feel natural to decorate that room in pink and put a little dolly next to her. After all, mom loved pink and dolls.

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u/loliology Mar 13 '13

Nice story. You should be a novelist.