Ben just linked me to a noupe article about women in web design (and yes, after their previous fuck up with my details it pains me to link to them) which discusses some well known women on the web, why women are treated like shit in the industry, and some advice for young women.
It’s not a bad read, but the reason why I’m posting is not necessarily to comment on the article — I’ve discussed how I’ve been treated by others relating to IT in the past — but because it occurred to me whilst reading that the most supportive tech community I’ve been involved in since my initiation on the web is that surrounding Habari.
As such, I wanted to big up the Habari project. If you’re looking for dev stuff to get involved in, whether you’re male or female, you could do worse than taking a look at Habari. I have a series of half-finished posts and themes for Habari which had to be put on hold when I went into hospital; nonetheless, even without having contributed, I can always guarantee I can get support from the guys in the Google group or IRC channel.
Now if only they’d hurry up and bring out subpages…
01 Apr at 8:34 pm
I don’t mind being the sole girl in a studio with 8 blokes – it’s far less catty than working in an all female-environment… it’s more like having 8 older brothers.
01 Apr at 9:04 pm
I agree with Rachaely. I had two female co-workers, but the rest were male…it’s nicer than the constant battles I had at my old job where it was about 50/50.
04 Apr at 7:16 pm
I’ve definitely been treated sub-par while being employed for co-op at even a minority-loving company. My boss assumed I was retarded and could not write a PHP app because I was a women. That’s not just me inferring – he told me so. He put me through ‘tests’ before he hired me to see if I was capable of doing simple things like setting up a webserver. -_-.
Fortunately this has only happened once, and the rest of my co-op placements have been great. I’m one of the very few females (except for HR.. which on another note pushes that stereotype) and it’s fine. I’m a little uneasy when they seem *impressed* that I can do what they do even though I’m female though… Sigh.
I also find it’s generally easier to get along with males in the tech world. Since I’ve been in CS at my school, and been around mostly males for so long, it’s hard to integrate back into a female setting :P