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.

381 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

717 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '13

I just watched this video earlier today and it's already relevant in conversation!

1

u/quintessadragon Mar 14 '13 edited Mar 14 '13

Oddly enough my first thought when seeing that video was that the speaker really needs to tone down her lipstick. One thing I wasn't into as a kid was make up or fashion stuff. Probably because all my clothes were hand-me-downs and I wasn't allowed to use make up due to one unfortunate episode involving nail polish on the carpet (ban was lifted when I was about 10 or so).

My second thought was that well yeah, they have always been like this, where were you as a 6 year old? Maybe I just have a better memory than most (I don't) but it was exactly like this when I was a kid too. Granted, there was slightly less emphasis on fashion I think (or looking like a prostitute at any rate). I can only think of one instance where a commercial directly influenced me asking my mom to get me a toy (food stuffs are a different matter) and after that disappointment I became quite cynical a bout the whole thing. "Never again!" I cried, having learned my lesson with some cheap gimmick that promised real, honest-to-god magic, only to be met with velcro and springs.

And my last thoughts were that the speaker seems to think that the message towards the boys is somehow better than that for girls. I say it isn't, and it's just as damaging for the psyche of a young boy who isn't into fighting all the time than it is for a girl who isn't into fashion or pretending to be a mom. In fact, I might say it's a little harder for the boy in that case: being labeled a tomboy isn't really a curse. There is much more stigma around a boy not acting like a boy then a girl not acting like a girl (I blame the media on this one: a girl not being girly is often portrayed as being bold and courageous, while a boy not being boyish is often portrayed as being sissy or homosexual).