What is a Beautiful Girl in Engineering Called?

A Visitor.

Ba dum *sssss*

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A friend shared a link on my Facebook the other day to an article in The New York Times regarding the recent sexual discrimination lawsuit rocking the Silicon Valley. You can read the article, entitled "Lawsuit Shakes Foundation of a Man’s World of Tech" here.

I've never really considered myself a feminist; I shudder even at the thought of it. I like to think of myself as one of the guys. But the fact is, I'm not. While earning my Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering, I was the only girl in my year, with no girls the year before me and two girls the year after me. And while the boys (almost) never said or did anything particularly hurtful, when you're different, it is definitely brought to your attention. Like, daily. I was a tour guide at school, and I used to dread the part where the parents would ask what my major was. I would always get "the face," a combination of shock and disbelief, followed by "Really? How many girls are in your classes?" To which I respond, "just me." 

I wouldn't trade my time spent with those fifteen boys for anything in the world, just to clarify. I was the annoying little sister to their big brother, the mother to their rebellious teen. I definitely don't want to imply that I was in any way seriously harassed for my gender while in their presence.

But it's the little things. The jokes. "The face." The comments. They further drive a wedge between women and technology. It is difficult enough for a woman to get to the point where she enters the professional world in a technology field, but if she receives this subtle discrimination, she may question her ability to hang with all the "bro-grammers." And when I say "difficult," I don't mean that the actual workload is more difficult for women than men, that women are any less (or any more) capable of succeeding than men. There have been studies to prove this. The "difficult" part is all in her, all in our, head.

Little girls get dolls, little boys get tools. Did I have Legos? Sure. But they were pink. They made a little house. Meanwhile my brother's Lego set created the entire landscape of Star Wars. His Lego people chopped off people's heads with lightsabers, mine made dinner and raised a family. In a nature vs nurture argument, I'm fully siding with nurture. Why did I get the pink Legos? Because they were marketed to me. From early on, that little girl, entering the world with a pink hospital cap slapped on her head before being laid on a pink blanket, is not given toys related to technology, unless you wanna count the circuit board in an Easy-Bake Oven. No, the toys that build engineering skills are boys toys. And no six-year-old girl wants the toy that all the little boys on TV have. Because she's not a boy. Ew, gross. Cooties.

I can talk a lot more about what prevents women from even trying to enter the tech field, and I probably will. That's the last research paper I did in college. And I was pretty proud of it.

But for now, I just wanted to comment on the little things that take place once a woman overcomes all the media pressure telling her that she doesn't belong and actually starts working.

Ellen Pao, a junior partner in her early 40s at the distinguished venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is the one who blew the whistle on the sexual discrimination in Silicon Valley. As the article puts it, now the people who are supposed to be working on the "new, new thing," who are supposed to be creating our future, are stuck in the past, arguing about an "old, old problem."

Parts of the article were weird and unnecessary (like the part talking about how Ellen Pao's husband was suing the building he lived in for not letting him expand, and then interviewing his previous long-term boyfriend as a character witness for both of them. Um.. what?). But it's not necessarily this particular case that is important and newsworthy, it's the entire concept, the entire idea of what it is like for women working in the Silicon Valley, in the technology world in general. People are talking about it because this is NOT an isolated event. Rather, it is a depressingly common event that is usually swept under the rug. In the article, one interviewee (who's company recently found out she was pregnant and was attempting to remove her from the board in anticipation of her maternity leave), expressed concern that an event like this will limit opportunities for women even more, that companies will not hire women so they do not have to worry as much about sexual discrimination suits.

I really connected with a quote on the first page: '“You talk to any woman in technology and she will have a personal story or know a story where she felt conscious of her gender in subtle or significant ways,” said Kathy Savitt, 48, the chief executive of the social commerce start-up Lockerz. Sometimes, she said, it’s as mild as realizing, “I’m the only chick in the room.” Other times, “it’s a lack of relevance, a feeling [that] you can see an end to your opportunities.'

Already, less than 20% of computer science degrees are awarded to women, a percentage which has already peaked and is on the decline, and a large portion of these women do not end up with careers in computer science. When you are already going against what society expects you to do, and you get those little comments and awkward feelings, at some point you just might cave and leave. Go back to the kitchen, which the lost boys of my generation seem particularly in awe of. (Go make your own goddamn sandwich).

To conclude my rambling, I have a few quick comments on the article itself:

1) Not sure how I feel about the title of the article... if I try to remember punctuation correctly, it assigns the "World of Tech" to "Man" with that little 's. And as much as I want to believe this is a comment on the situation and meant to be taken ironically, I can't help feeling that it's not.

2) One of the men they interviewed was the author of a 1999 book titled "The Silicon Boys." Ironic?

3) Notice that they put the ages of all the women mentioned (either age or year of graduation), but none of the men? ISN'T THAT SO WEIRD? I can't even figure out why. I assume something related to giving the reader an idea of their physical appearance. Obviously the most important take-away.

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Side note: When I was looking for a good derogatory joke about "women in engineering" for the title, it wasn't until I switched it to "girls in engineering" that I had any success. I'd like to thank my Women and Gender Studies class for that little tip.