In real life, Q is a woman! Head of MI6 calls for more female techies at SIS The chief of MI6, Alex Younger, yesterday called for more female technologists to come and work for him at Vauxhall Cross. Younger told the Women in IT Awards that "as a spy" he didn't get out much, but explained that doing so to celebrate the achievements of women in cyberland was worthwhile. He added that attracting the best …
Building one's own grandfather clock was rather popular in the early 1900's. There were kits one could buy to do this. My ex-grandfather in law made a rather fine mercury regulator, whilst he was at university, that is still going strong up in Scotland.
This post has been deleted by its author
the gender imbalance has been a sticking point for those with an interest in an equitable and efficient society
Excepting where women are over-represented, for example in media, fashion, medicine, nursing, teaching, and a few others. These people seeking an "equitable and efficient society" seem to want a very selective form of equality. Perhaps they could present data proving that more women in IT would help, whereas the fact that two thirds of GPs are women is not a problem?
Some very flawed presumptions as to what is "equitable", and complete ignorance of what that would mean for "efficient".
AC,
you are more on the money than you believe....
The local 'wimmin' think that it is just downright weird, that I [as in a bloke] drop our lad off at school AND collect him in the afternoon, rather than the missus doing so.
I am not making this up, four years after first dropping him off, some of them still give me really weird looks.
Ironically when any of them have asked what wifey's job is, I mention that she works in the NHS, 99% of the time the response is 'so she's a nurse then?'.
I mean, there aren't any female GPs, Consultants in the NHS are there now???
They are usually quite stunned when I mention she has a Masters in Nuclear Medicine and also did Astrophysics 'because it was interesting'.
Stereotypes work in a multitude of directions...
Cheers [off to the pub when wifey gets home shortly]
Jay
My view is not that women shouldn't be allowed into high demand techie jobs, (not that this one will be, it's the civil service, so she'll be a time served manager,) but that we are pushing women into jobs when they'd rather be someone else.
There are some very good female techies and I've recommended several on Linked In.
That said, in my experience while there are some very clever women, (I know because I find them personally attractive, and hence dated them before I was married,) there are always cleverer men, sometimes much cleverer, and there are many more clever men, and "Women in IT" seems to be a synonym for "Government demanding IT companies share their immense profits with people who can't understand it, by creating pretend jobs."
If we're going to give women money, because they need it, and I think we should, because biologically they do, we should just bite the bullet, and be explicit about it, and then we will have some gratitude for it, because the people giving the money would be getting something in return. But the world seems to be oriented around ensuring women have no obligations to men, because there's only one way for them to pay it back.
Ironically the countries where they've managed to get clever women to have lots of children, rather than get clever women to try to hold down a big techie job, which they only do half heartedly, are the most successful.
Thankfully, we're in post feminism, and the ship will right itself soon.
They are quite interested in S and the M parts (stop sniggering at the back), lots more women in permanent science academic jobs and a majority in medicine.
Just not as interested in taking the T and E jobs that are mostly poorly paid, have poor career prospects and are easily destroyed come the next round of off-shoring outsourcing or cuts
I'm not sure what's quite right. My wife is very nerdy but then again so were many of the engineering apprentices I was with during my teens - but most have apparently not left that sector following time off to have kids.
It could be problems getting back in following maternity leave as many wanted reduced hours and that's not always practical in engineering. Where as Scientific/medical jobs (particularly GPs) can tailor their working hours far better.
Fixing a car is not engineering, though it may be problem solving.
Designing cars is engineering.
You don't need to understand any of differential equations, FEA, calculus, thermodynamics, gas flow, applied metallurgy, or electronics to fix a car. All are needed to design one.
You don't need to understand any of that stuff to "design" something either. Look at the crap Jony Ive has done:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/tumblr_mo8mlqt4CT1svn1xeo1_1280.jpg
Thanks FFTFM , ac (and others)
It was a pretty rushed post, i didnt have time to think of good examples or wording.
..and talking of calculus and mettalurgy . I studied all that , and qualified in engineering . ( 2 girls , about 15 or 20 boys in the classes)
Anyhoo IT seemed the world didnt want me as an engineer and after a year trying to get a job , I fell into IT support instead. Who knew you could make a living showing people how to turn a pc on and off.
Or indeed just giving the PC a hard stare so that it works for the user.
The boys being left behind by education are clearly not competing on a level playing field, so until they get equality THEY should be preferred for all jobs.
Or we could just realise that the feminazis' "equality" is bunk, and make it illegal to not pick the best person for every job or to target one group of people with recruitment.
Maybe girls are getting raised with more appreciation for abstract knowledge and more discipline and boys are getting raised with the attitude that fucking off and not learning anything is perfectly okay. Or maybe girls are just smarter, and with sheer physical size and intimidation being removed as a factor, girls and women are freer to succeed than they were in the past.
As an FYI, use of the word "feminazi" designates you as an utter cretin with no possible worthwhile opinion.
if you have 100 suitable male applicants , and 5 suitable female applicants and you need to fill 50 places , then no problem.
If however you have a rule that it must be 50% women , you'll get 25 suitable men , 5 suitable women , and 20 unqualified women , not pulling their weight , being carried by the other 30.
if you mean by "expanding the recruitment process." that the process is longer , then yeah , if you mean works better , i disagree
The fundamental issue is a culture and tradition problem. Girls were taught to be pretty and get married. Funny thing is, it IS a smart decision at the time and also most of today's.
Think about this, you get married and you can let your hubby do all the hard thinking and if you're lucky you get free money to spend and do work/ have fun as you like (research shown ~80% spending are by women in commercial store. men earn money, women spend them). Heck, even today men are expected or willing to pay for women for a meal. (try this, get a kid to ask to waiter for the check. See whether the waiter gives the wife the check or the husband the check. Also note whether it is a waiter or waitress)
So until the Men change and make that 'decision' weak like demanding higher technical skill women to marry, there is not much reason for women to look for IT or other Critical Problem Solving job. Unfortunately, the world has more men demanding women (there's a whole industry for those men, called p**n) and even a demand for lower technical skill women (just to make themselves better). So their decision still remains valid.
The only women looking at Problem Solving job are plain self interest, contradicting norm of culture and tradition being passed down. This is why there are so few women in those jobs.
Another issue is generation problem where women are taught to be the one caring for kids. So giving being taught being pretty and need to care for kids, what subjects are you more likely to look for? Social Science, nursing, teaching, liberal art, etc. If we want to change that, we need to develop ways for women not need to care for kids 100% of their time, which is the best we can do (washing machine, microwave, mixer, dish washing machine, school, etc.). Unfortunately, it still can't fix the first issue.
In short, the issue is caused by men implemented by women. To fix it, men need to demand Higher Technical Skill women for marriage, design more innovation that reduce time needs to care for kids and teach their daughters instead of letting their wife re-teach "it still works" tradition.
Tim,
at first I thought you were winding us up, then I realised, feck, he actually believes it...
My wife is a respected medical physicist, I am the primary carer, whilst slowly developing what will hopefully be a successful business.
I have worked with many capable women, in a number of roles, with the occasional exception I have invariably noted that when I compared the abilities of a woman and a man doing the same or a similar job, the woman was invariably brighter, sharper and cleverer.
You are painting with an extremely wide brush when applying your stereotypes, also your grammar and sentence structure is more than a little 'floppy' shall we say.
I wonder if reading between the lines you yearn for a simpler past where the little woman put on her apron and made breakfast for hubby, got junior ready for school, then tidied the house and then got dinner ready.
Times change, you need to change with them...
Regards,
Jay
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
