Continental Shelf

(Continuing the discussion started last week in Part 1 and leading up to Ada Lovelace Day.)

My techie friends

Naturally, being a woman first studying and later working in technology and science for the last three decades, with nerdly hobbies and geeky interests, I know a lot of women in technical fields of expertise.

Techie professions

These days, working in technology evokes, for the general public, either being a code developer for Google, Microsoft, or Blizzard; or the IT support people at their office. Science, well, that usually evokes a very general and nebulous super-expertise in everything, like the Professor on Gilligan’s Island, Walter and Peter on Fringe, and pretty much anyone but Jack Carter on Eureka.

Therefore, let’s unpack the idea a bit and look at what all fits in the Science and Technology drawer: think chemistry, physics, biology, engineering, geology, mathematics, airline pilots…

Here are some of my female techie friends’ areas of expertise:

• Marine, fisheries, wetlands, and plant biology
• Genetics
• Telecommunications
• Information technology
• Civil, electrical, environmental, and industrial engineering
• Statistical analysis
• Industrial safety
• Chemistry

Sometimes, by virtue of environment and of being women they are assumed to be non-technical. Female IT professionals are sometimes assumed to be secretaries or assistants; some of my friends in big telcos are assumed to be phone operators. This can be extremely frustrating, especially if it’s reflected on the pay scale (i.e., the glass ceiling).

I’ve noticed over the years that the gender distribution is much more even in recently developed or emphasized fields like environmental sciences or biotechnology, and much more lopsided in “old” fields like geology or civil engineering. Life sciences (medicine and related fields) also seem to appeal to young women.

Geek hobbies

Geek women certainly don’t appear rare to me; but I know they can tend to be less “visible”, especially in related hobbies like online forums and game boards. Some don’t want to be associated with nerd pursuits outside work; some are knee-deep into online contacts with the geek community but under male or neutral pseudonyms and personae, or stick to hobbies they can practice with a closed circle like tech and science clubs, console or tabletop games, etc.; and many have a family that takes all their off-hours interests.

And if the tech hobby requires significant money (for computer equipment, gadgets, subscriptions, travel, etc.) and these geek women have a geek husband and especially kids, they tend to prioritize the hobby budget for their partner and family. So if anyone gets a new hard drive, a trip to a convention, or a new laptop, it’s less likely to be Ms. Techie.

Even more interestingly, I think among my circle at least, techie women have more varied interests than men — or share them more easily. The tech women I know tend to also enjoy art, crafts, music, martial arts, etc. and have at least one important creative and non-tech hobby. It’s spottier among the men I know.

Other posts in this series:

• Part 1 (February 24): Hollywoodian portrayals
• Part 2 (today): My techie friends
• Part 3 (March 10): Boyz in our ‘hood
• Part 4 (March 17): What’s so great about it?
• Part 5 (March 24): Ada Lovelace Day — some role models