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Young Women Encouraged to Go For IT

An anonymous reader writes "Wednesday Microsoft Canada's vice president of developer and platform evangelism encouraged 9th grade girls to head for an IT career with a presentation that debunked key myths. Apparently IT isn't geeky or socially isolating. From the article: "Some issues (the girls) brought up included fears that their friends will think (working in IT) is a geeky thing to do, and that IT work is not very social...They were concerned that there were limitations for women in this area of technology, and they felt there is a stigma associated with IT in terms of it not being a very exciting place to work."

36 of 708 comments (clear)

  1. Dilbert said it best... by Faust7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "For the next twenty years I'll sit in a big box called a cubicle. It's like a restroom stall but with lower walls. I spend most of my time hoping the electromagnetic fields from my office equipment aren't killing me."

    1. Re:Dilbert said it best... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      shouldn't that be... I hope the electromagnetic fields from my office equipment are killing me.

  2. Perhaps they shouldn't go into IT by aussie_a · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some issues (the girls) brought up included fears that their friends will think (working in IT) is a geeky thing to do

    If someone is going to be influenced by what their friends think, perhaps we should let them be influenced. Many consider going into IT to be geeky. If you're immature enough to let your friends stop you from going into a particular market, then maybe your not really ready for any serious market and should work in a market that requires next to no maturity (I hear McDonalds is looking for people to hire).

    1. Re:Perhaps they shouldn't go into IT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      See, the problem is, so many young girls are constantly gauging what their friends thing, such that by the time they grow up, the only jobs they are appropriate for are jobs which center around this insecurely wrought skill for managing images....namely, MARKETING!

      Then they spam the rest of us and chat with each other over coffee.

  3. Are you kidding? by Vash_066 · · Score: 1, Funny

    that IT work is not very social I meet all kinds of people while I'm on IRC at work!

  4. There are already many women in IT... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    There are already many sissy women in IT, they are called Mac users.

  5. Is that you, Dr. Summers? by jbellis · · Score: 4, Funny

    What are you doing on slashdot?!

  6. Re:What is wrong with women? by Further82 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Perhaps cause the girls in question are 9 years old and are more concerned with what color cell phone will best match their mini-skirt so they can look like a 30 year old crack whore in the mall.

    Which brings me back to your topic, What is wrong with women?

  7. Re:I know several.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I haven't noticed a stigma with the several girls here at work. I have however noticed that if any one of them ever runs into a problem in their code or admining in general, they generally have half a dozen guys fighting to give them a hand ;-)

  8. Re:What is wrong with IT? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    Can someone point me to a decent paying profession that is 99% female
    Prostitution.
  9. Re:Why stop in Canada? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    dude, I assume he was using binary, with 10 fingers he can get to 1023. What kind of geek are you :)

  10. Not to worry, girls by Zhe+Mappel · · Score: 5, Funny
    Some issues (the girls) brought up included fears that their friends will think (working in IT) is a geeky thing to do, and that IT work is not very social...

    Once your High Elf builds up enough EXP points and you've found the right Star Trek .sig for your posts, all these fears will melt away.

  11. The real motive... by fmaxwell · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wednesday Microsoft Canada's vice president of developer and platform evangelism encouraged 9th grade girls to head for an IT career

    In a related story, Microsoft was seeking ways to reduce its IT costs by about 25%.

  12. Re:Why stop in Canada? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    dude, I assume he was using binary, with 10 fingers he can get to 1023. What kind of geek are you :)
    Well I have a single handed binary message for you, 00100.
  13. Sounds Creepy. by muntumbomoklik · · Score: 2, Funny

    Some guy from Microsoft was telling girls in grade nine that he'd really like them in the cubicle next to him?

    Aren't there laws against this?

  14. Re:What is wrong with women? by BigusDickus · · Score: 2, Funny

    You must be new. You're supposed to say: First post!!!

  15. Teen Girl Squad by catdevnull · · Score: 2, Funny

    Cheerleader!
    So-and-So!
    What's-Her-Face!
    The Ugly One!

    Which one works in IT?

    It's over!

    --

    I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
  16. In other news... by HockeyPuck · · Score: 2, Funny

    Boys are being encouraged to go into non-traditional fields such as:

    -Ballet Dancer
    -Nurse
    -Kindergarden Teacher
    -Hooters Waitress

  17. I agree. by ruiner13 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Being a male in IT, I wholeheartedly encourage young women to enter my field. Especially if you're about 38"-24"-34".

    --

    today is spelling optional day.

  18. Hi! We haven't met you either. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Us being the unemployed professional programmers. You must be that mythical hiring manager we hear about every so often. So you guys are all in Canada, eh? That explains it.

  19. Re:What is wrong with women? by bladesjester · · Score: 4, Funny

    Reminds me of a conversation last night. I had to talk someone out of doing a dual boot between XP home and XP pro. His reasoning behind this was that he wanted to run IIS on his laptop (he's learning ASP) and it won't really run on home.

    I kid you not...

    Here's the kicker - He's got a CS degree. I almost threatened to take it away from him.

    --
    Everything I need to know I learned by killing smart people and eating their brains.
  20. You didn't know? by xRelisH · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...it's hard finding a date in the department...

    This is really one elaborate plan devised by older geeks to help the younger geeks get dates! Most of those women in marketting and the "normal" majors/teams at work wont even talk to us!

  21. Re:What is wrong with women? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "That's the one thing I like about high school women, I get older, and they stay the same age."

    -Matthew McConaughey

  22. Re:What is wrong with women? by bladesjester · · Score: 2, Funny

    That wasn't why he wanted two seperate partitions. (As a note, the laptop I'm using is dual boot xp pro and fedora. I work in both, but I also play in the windows half).

    He was thinking that he was going to have to do a whole seperate partition *just* to be able to use IIS. After explaining to him that he could just save his data from his laptop and reinstall it with pro, his reaction was basically "oh... ok"

    --
    Everything I need to know I learned by killing smart people and eating their brains.
  23. Of course IT isn't geeky by TempeTerra · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's a terrible mistake to think that IT is a geeky field, or that there is stigma attached to it.

    Don't be fooled into thinking that IT professionals must be introverted socially inept pedants who live in their parents' basements just because that describes everybody currently in the field.

    --
    .evom ton seod gis eht
  24. Re:What is wrong with women? by hey! · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, and what is this thing they have with bathing and changing their clothes every day?

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  25. Re:IT isn't geeky? by hey! · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now, as an alpha geek (Slashdot on Saturday? guilty)

    Dude, that just gets you into the club. Don't expect to be elected president.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  26. Re:What is wrong with women? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    30 year old crack whore

    Excuse me, that's "mature recreational products arbitrageur" to you, buddy.

  27. Re:Why stop in Canada? by Zorilla · · Score: 2, Funny

    Lethal Weapon for nerds:

    "Wait - do we go on 01, 10, 11, go, or on 01, 10, 11?"

    "We always go on 10!"

    "OK! 01, 10....AAAAAUUUGHHHH!"

    --

    It would be cool if it didn't suck.
  28. Re:IT isn't geeky? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Dude, that just gets you into the club. Don't expect to be elected president.

    Well.. what about me? I'm slashdotting on a saturday night that just happens to be my 30th birthday. (Please don't say I have to be 35 to run for geek president! :P)

  29. IT is plenty exciting (waiting to get outsourced) by tjstork · · Score: 2, Funny

    Come on, join IT, girls, it's very exciting. You don't want to hang out with football players. You want to hang out and play Dungeons and Dragons and collect guns. Then, you can get outsourced like the rest of us!

    --
    This is my sig.
  30. Re:Why force this on girls? by Y0tsuya · · Score: 2, Funny

    How much do you want to bet that the extra 8 percent of grey matter spends all its time thinking about sex instead of academics?

  31. Re:What is wrong with women? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Dude, stop trolling the FBI agents.

  32. Re:What is wrong with women? by edittard · · Score: 1, Funny
    Honestly, which do you think makes more people wealthy: 1) IT 2) marrying well.
    In my case, both. P.S. I am Mrs Gates.
    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
  33. Re:Irresponsible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    dude... man i totaly agree i a self a taught programmar and have been programming in C+ since i'm was 7 i'm a true hacker and all that software develipment that they learned in collage is BS its all about hacking it out theory is fucking bs I know this guy who spent like 3 years working for the NAVY (the united states) with some stupid open source BS called UML and now his jobs are outsourced to India, haha what fag

  34. Re:Option? In .se, it's almost a req't to care 4 k by Ingolfke · · Score: 5, Funny

    What a backward society. Here in America men and women can return to work within mere days of the birth of the new child. For the first couple years of the child's life they leave him or her with strangers at an all day care facility. What a wonderfully uplifiting, social experience for the child. After that, our advanced technology has allowed us to use television, video games, and an excess of overly competitive sports and pointless hobbies to develop the child's intellect, keep them from trouble, and raise them to be wonderful members of society. Caring for your children directly is such a thing of the past, leave it to professionals is what I say.