This morning I volunteered at an event for high school women considering careers in IT. The purpose of this type of event is to eliminate the myth that to work in IT you have to be a geek, somebody without any kind of social skills, who day in and day out sits in front of a computer and does nothing but write code.
I got there late, after taking Sofia to school, so I had to sit at the only table that did not have a mentor yet. This sounds terrible, but I was disappointed with my table when I saw them. There were only three girls there, and all three fit exactly the image we are trying to change. Two of them were frumpy and overweight, and had this look like they just did not care. The third one had long unruly hair, and was wearing a black sweatshirt with a skull print.
When I sat down I found myself holding my breath, if only because one of them reminded me of a guy I used to work with when I was getting my MBA. We were both students and only worked for a few hours at the help desk every day. The other students and I really dreaded seeing him there, because he always smelled so, but so bad, that even when he sat on a chair only for a few minutes the chair really absorbed his smell. The worse was when it rained, especially if he got wet.
I asked them a few questions and tried to engage with them. I asked how they learned about the event, what they thought about it so far, and if they were getting answers to the questions they had about working in IT. One of them was like "I just came with her", pointing at the one that sadly reminded me of my smelly co-worker. She apparently was getting extra credit for attending, and bringing a friend. The third one, the one with the skull print, was kind of disappointed that the event was not covering the more "artsy" side of IT.
I did my best to encourage them to think about it, telling them how working in IT they can really explore many different areas and industries, and how in IT there's room for everyone, those who do want to write code, and those interested in working more on the business side.
At the end they did perk up a little bit, probably taking in all the energy coming from some of the other tables, especially during a contest held at the very end. And I want to believe that my attempts to get them interested also did them some good. Or maybe they just thought I was a big nagging dork and couldn't wait to get out of there.
I think more women are actually getting into IT. During my time at school, I would say a just under half the classmates for the computer courses were female, and the times I teamed up with them, they seemed more excited about the material than the male students. That was about 5 years ago, so maybe the trend has only increased.
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