One of the boys. Women in technology

Suffers from writers block! Have to finish my column for the @SDNMagazine “Women in Technology” issue.

@mariannerd Still struggling with the subject? I handed in my "regular" column – not dealing with WIT. When’s the final deadline?

@aahoogendoorn I woke up this morning with an idea. deadline was 13/4, for columns it’s a bit easier. so Friday has to do. 😉

@aahoogendoorn Too bad we don’t have too much time.. we could have co-write it… a man vs.. woman kind of thing LOL

@mariannerd That would have been cool. We could have set it up in a conversation style, maybe even Twitter style. What if we twittered this …

@aahoogendoorn I like the idea! It can be funny and to the point… (at least every response has to be short 🙂 )

@mariannerd Normally my responses are longer – like most women (in IT), let alone exceptions (like you).

@aahoogendoorn I’m an exception? .. I’m not a model developer….but a model’s just an imitation of the real thing.

@mariannerd If you’re an exception, that would be BECAUSE you are indeed a MODEL developer.

@mariannerd With your looks it’s more likely you’ll create an exception with many male developers. A BufferOverflowException perhaps?

@aahoogendoorn A BufferOverflowException? As long as they know how to handle it! And otherwise I will give them more Runtime 😉

@mariannerd Maybe that’s why there so little female developers? It takes a nerd to understand nerd jokes? Maybe too few female autists?

@mariannerd I tried to think of all WIT I’ve met over the past 20 years. Quite a few. But when it comes to writing code, I can literally count them

@mariannerd Why are there so few female developers?

@aahoogendoorn Girls don’t choose an IT education. It’s the image (nerd/geeks), thinking it’s too difficult, the fact it’s male dominated.

@mariannerd So it’s because there’s too many men in IT that there’s not enough girl developers?

@aahoogendoorn That’s a rhetorical question..;-) But it is one of the reasons why girls don’t choose an technical education.

@mariannerd Rhetorical or not. I guess there are so many men in software development because it’s so binary. Not how most women think 🙂

@aahoogendoorn Would you use the opposite explanation for why there are so few male nurses?

@aahoogendoorn Studies shows that girls THINK it’s too complex and therefore dull. Wrong image… never a dull moment in my work :-).

@mariannerd It can’t be complexity – women are supposed to be multi-tasking, aren’t they? Or, in our case: multi-threading.

@mariannerd Although I have to say that the idea of studying with 40 girl nurses to me does not sound very scary.

@aahoogendoorn So now you know why I’ve chosen software development. LOL

@mariannerd However, the idea of studying with 50 male nerds is more scary. Marvel Heroes, Hitchhiker’s Guide, 42, Star Wars all day?

@mariannerd Thought you chose IT because your sense of humor matches that of male nerds? Think Ghostbusters. You probably dig South Park too.

@aahoogendoorn I love South Park… especially the phrase: Respect my authority !!!

@mariannerd O no, they killed Kenny. My favorite episode is where Cartman hates Family Guy, and the one where Canada is on strike, and …

@aahoogendoorn I chose IT because I like the no nonsense mentality, always learning new things, the creative side…

@aahoogendoorn … Also the high level of expertise and the knowledge sharing (e.g. at events) is awesome. I guess that’s the geeky part of it.

@mariannerd No nonsense mentality? You’ve probably never worked for large consultancy firms… But I agree on the creative part.

@mariannerd And I agree on knowledge sharing – but isn’t that a typical female thing? So there should actually be more WIT…

@mariannerd But on the other hand, it also requires hard logic thinking, something a lot of women are less good at. 😉

@ aahoogendoorn I think the lack of logical thinking by women is not the biggest problem. The female devs I know are VERY good at it!

@mariannerd I love women that think logical. There should be much more of them – TomTom would definitively go out of business.

@ aahoogendoorn Hmm where would that put me… I always get lost when I actually use TomTom!

@mariannerd That’s not YOU getting lost, it’s TomTom. Developed by male developers?

@ aahoogendoorn Another problem for most women… lack of confidence.. (and men having too much)

@mariannerd Most men only PRETEND to be self confident. But you knew that, didn’t you?

@ aahoogendoorn … and I thought faking was a women’s thing!

@mariannerd Woody Allen shouts (when Annie Hall leaves him): "And by the way, I faked all my orgasms"

@mariannerd Makes you wonder what kids of relationship a male and a female nerd would have. Watching Comedy Central, laptops on laps?

@ aahoogendoorn Oh yeah and quality time through MSN 😉

@mariannerd MSN while both on the same sofa, watching South Park and sharing code examples. Actually sounds like lots of fun.

@ aahoogendoorn Nah…I’ve had a similar experience. only the South Park part didn’t add up. Bottom line it didn’t work out! LOL

@ aahoogendoorn One advantage of working as a female developer.. no queues at the bathroom at events!

@mariannerd That’s a good one. And of course lots of nerdy developers staring at you like. Don’t you get tired of that?

@ aahoogendoorn Hmm.. Getting tired of nerdy men looking at me? I wouldn’t be a good presenter if that would bother me, now would I?

@mariannerd You’re fast. Developers stare at me too when I’m presenting, but I hope that’s different.

@mariannerd So concluding you might say that girls do not get into IT because there’s too many male nerds.

@mariannerd I read an article yesterday that stated that certain ant colonies in the US reproduce without sex, no more male ants required.

@ aahoogendoorn I feel sorry for those ants 😉

@mariannerd So, if Darwin is right, and this ant pattern gets picked up by humans, the problem of too many male developers should soon be solved.

@ aahoogendoorn …male developers reproducing by themselves!? Wow… talk about scary! The nurses too?

@mariannerd You can’t publish that in SDN Magazine….

@aahoogendoorn Let’s find out!

@aahoogendoorn Btw… are you putting this together for the column?

@mariannerd Eh… I thought you were putting this together actually. Ha ha. Typical man / woman mistake?

@aahoogendoorn I can do it… no probs… Typical female way to solve problems.

@mariannerd Ha-ha. I counted on that – call it my male intuition.

@aahoogendoorn Yeah! Sure 😉