I recently came across the Student Affairs Women Talk Tech blog and was reminded of a recent post titled “Geek Girls Unite” by my colleague Jen Riehle at NC State. In general, there seem to be fewer females than males in the tech world, although females tend to have the numbers in the the student affairs profession (just observation, no data here). Nonetheless, here at NC State, half of our senior IT directors in the central IT unit are women. But I’m the only woman among the college/unit directors. It’s really a mixed bag. Still, the bottom line is that I’ve only sensed that being female was really a factor in one or two occasions in my IT career.
A completely different story in my previous higher ed position as the harassment prevention officer for our university. Much of that came with the territory and the very nature of the position and the backlash associated with it. Almost daily I encountered the gender factor in some form or fashion in my almost 8 years in that role.
It may be that being in student affairs mitigates any of the gender bias that might exist in the IT profession. Certainly among my student affairs colleagues I never feel gender come into play, but it does rear its head occassional in other venues on our campus.
No answers, just some observations. Would love feedback on this topic.