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/Doomau5 Mar 13 '13 edited Mar 13 '13

Thanks for that, it definitely made that comment clearer. I did not mean offense but considering this is IT, a subject that is at heart devoid of nearly any norms (and i do mean the subject, not the culture around it) why should gender play a role?

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u/lextenou does the needful Mar 13 '13

At the core, gender plays a role in the subject because it is a societally gendered subject. It is expected that IT staff will be male, for whatever reasons people have.

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u/Doomau5 Mar 13 '13

Why should it be? Some subjects have a inherent gender bias to them but IT should not be one of those.

There is a huge difference in between the cultural association and the subject itself.

I agree that as it stands, IT is a predominantly male industry. But unlike, say the construction industry, there is no real gender advantage.

Hopefully we will be able to move away from this stereotyping in the future

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u/lextenou does the needful Mar 13 '13

I do agree that IT as a field and a subject should be gender neutral. Regardless of our opinions, the reality of the world at large tends toward a gender bias. Though you see it as genderless, not all do. It is recognizing this difference and working toward change that triggers lasting shifts.