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Some things never change…

I missed the CASCON conference this year, but just found some notes from last year’s conference, which included a session on barriers to women in technology/business. In addition to some dismal numbers on the percentage of women on corporate boards (14.7% in the US, 11.2% in Canada), I jotted down a brilliant quote from the speaker:

When a man fails, no one ever wonders if it was because he is a man.

Not sure if this was hers originally or if she’s quoting someone else, but it’s brilliant nonetheless.

I also noted a source for stats on women receiving degrees in Computer Science, which shows not exactly stellar numbers: women took 15% of the undergraduate degrees in 2004/5, 25% of the Masters’ degrees, and 15% of the Ph.D.’s.

A speaker from the University of Waterloo (where I graduated Engineering) stated that we have to be honest when speaking with girls considering going into computer science, and tell them that they may be the only girl in their high school or even university computer science class: I was shocked that this is still the case.

2007 11 04 business Comments (0)

Eat, drink and do your part for breast cancer

Willow, a breast cancer support group, is hosting their annual Eat to the Beat event on September 25th:

Willow’s Eat to the Beat is the only event of its kind in North America that features delicacies and delectables prepared by over 60 of the finest women chefs including famed television host, Chef Anna Olson.

Now in its 12th year, the event brings together high profile women chefs from across Canada for an “all-out feast of the senses”. Guests can stroll through an eclectic array of food stations while sipping on a selection of fine wines, spirits and beers from around the world.

2007 09 12 food & wine Comments (0)

Women in technology

O’Reilly is running a Women in Technology series of articles. I suspect that this will be primarily a series on women in American technology, which is a significantly different experience from those of us in other countries (speaking from the point of view of having worked in tech in both Canada and the US, and traveled on business to about 20 other countries), but it’s a start.

And for all the independent women out there, a lovely little fairy tale sent to me by a friend today:

Once upon a time
in a land far away,
a beautiful, independent,
self-assured princess
happened upon a frog as she sat
contemplating ecological issues
on the shores of an unpolluted pond
in a verdant meadow near her castle.

The frog hopped into the princess’ lap
and said: “Elegant Lady,
I was once a handsome prince,
until an evil witch cast a spell upon me.
One kiss from you, however,
and I will turn back
into the dapper, young prince that I am
and then, my sweet, we can marry
and set up housekeeping in your castle
with my mother,
where you can prepare my meals,
clean my clothes, bear my children,
and forever feel
grateful and happy doing so.”

That night,
as the princess dined sumptuously
on lightly sautéed frog legs
seasoned in a white wine
and onion cream sauce,
she chuckled and thought to herself:
I don’t fuckin think so

2007 09 04 Comments (0)

The continuing saga of being a woman on the internet

I haven’t been posting my Skype Scumbags recently, but one popped up today that really pissed me off. I was working away and a Skype request to share details (that is, add to my friends list) came in from a “nick desanctis”.

My Skype profile clearly states “Please be specific in your contact requests. I do not accept blind contacts, especially from idiots who think that because my profile says ‘female’, it means ’skype me’”, but I meet a lot of people in business and don’t remember all the names, so I always check the person’s profile to see if they might be someone that I’ve met rather than a garden-variety stalker. This guy was from Montreal, where I visited a few weeks ago on business, and it was a vanilla “please share your details with me” request, so I sent him a message:

[7:02:50 PM] Sandy says: do i know you? i use skype primarily for business and do not welcome unsolicited personal invitations

As soon as he responded, I realized that he was just another Skype stalker, the likes of which I see at least once a week, sometimes several times in one day:

[7:07:10 PM] nick desanctis says: hi
[7:07:43 PM] nick desanctis says: you don’t want to talk to me
[7:08:14 PM] nick desanctis says: do you have hotmail
[7:10:05 PM] nick desanctis says: so why did you talk to me

Skype stalker

The thing that really pissed me off was his last line (”so why did you talk to me”) because it implies that because I responded to a blind invitation that could have been a valid business connection, I’m somehow “asking for it”. This is right up there with guys who think that women are asking to be sexually assaulted because they wear a short skirt or walk on the street alone at night.

I’m not the only one who gets these; a female friend of mine who says that she tends to see invitations from the “spiritual weirdos” recently received the following invitation on Skype:

Feel free to connect with me via email or [phone number] and/or via “heart subspace” (too late to unconnect there - I am already locked-on to your heart I am afraid).

“Heart subspace”??!! I don’t know whether to laugh or barf.

2007 08 19 Comments (0)

Women in the kitchen, renovating

Finding a home renovator in Toronto is difficult, but finding one owned and operated by women that also mentors women in construction trades borders on impossible. Enter Wo-Built, whose CEO Martina Ernst I met at the first Toronto Girl Geek Dinner last month; she and her partner have decades of experience in design, project management, building and construction. What I really like is that they offer pre-apprenticeship training and job shadowing for women considering a trade but not sure which one that they might choose, as well as having a commitment to hiring women already skilled in trades to work on their projects.

Trades have, in my opinion, been given short shrift in the past 20 years with every boomer wanting their kids to go to university even if they were more suited to being a plumber (which probably makes them more money than that sociology degree, too). The result is a lack of skilled tradespeople and a glut of people leaving university with no real idea of what they want to do with that degree that their parents paid for; I’m not saying that everyone is in that position, just that I’ve seen some examples first-hand. Martina’s offering a chance for something different for young women.

2007 07 31 Comments (2)

Where are all the TorCamp men?

Last night, we had the first Toronto Girl Geek dinner, which drew about 40 people with only one brave male soul amongst us. The rules of attending a Girl Geek dinner are simple: if you are male, you must bring a female with you or be brought by a female. You don’t have to be invited. You don’t have to be a girl. You don’t even have to be a geek.

One of the questions that came up was how to get more women integrated into the Toronto tech community, and I suggested that the *Camp events were a great place to start: they’re more casual, it’s easy to gain some experience and confidence with public speaking by heading up a session, and the male attendees are not the usual chest-beating alpha males that you find at some technology events. How disappointing, as I looked around the room, to realize that not a single TorCamp man was in attendance to show his support for women in the Toronto tech community.

The next dinner is planned for September 19th, hope to see more of you then.

2007 06 28 technology
toronto Comments (2)

Never say dye…

From the talented Jessica Hagy:

Not completely accurate, but funny nonetheless.

2007 06 12 Comments (0)

Best. Skype. Stalker. Ever.

In case there was any doubt that I receive an unusual number of Skype chat requests because I have the gender flag set to “female” on my profile, I present one of the more recent ones. This guy’s profile is absolutely hilarious, although I’m not sure how I feel about being categorized as a “mature woman” by someone who is less than a year younger than I am :)

Skype Stalker

I’ve stopped posting all of the chat requests that I get in my Skype Stalkers Flickr set, there have been so many lately. I’m thinking about taking the gender flag off my profile to stop the barrage, although it is an interesting social experiment.

2007 05 29 Comments (0)

What’s the emoticon for ambivalence?

I saw this in large poster format in an apartment window while on the train in from O’Hare airport to downtown Chicago earlier this week:

I (heart) my period

My first thought that was this was a marketing campaign created by men, but it turns out the company behind it is a small group of women. I find it difficult, however, to share their sentiments.

2007 04 12 health Comments (2)

Playing in your walled wurstgarten

Earlier this week, after my post about mesh’s lack of visible reasons for a having a bunch of white guys as their keynote speakers, I had a conversation with Mark Evans, one of the mesh organizers. Based on this chat, my assessment is that the mesh organizers exhibit little or no commitment to diversity, and Mark’s stated reasons for no women keynotes are even less compelling than the ones that I wrote in parody. He said:

  • But the high-tech industry *is* a bunch of white guys. [Do you know how smug and stupid that sounds when you tell me, a woman in the high-tech industry, that the industry *is* a bunch of white guys, as if I didn't exist?]
  • We tried! We really tried! [uh huh]
  • Will we try harder next year? Definitely! [Did I make this blog post last year? Definitely! Will I be repeating this blog post next year? Definitely!]
  • I have a lot of things going on right now, running a startup, organizing a conference. Have you ever organized a conference? Do you know how hard it is? [Oh, puh-leeze, enough with the patronizing "I'm busier/more important than you are" crap. If you couldn't do a decent job, why did you take it on?]
  • Can you suggest any women speakers? [It's the organizers' responsibility to find the speakers, and maybe if you'd opened up a call for speakers, you'd get outside your walled wurstgarten -- there's a pretty direct connection from the "don't call us, we'll call you" message of your Contact page to the homogeneity of your keynote speakers, drawn from your circle of friends and their friends. Or if you looked at any one of the lists of women speakers on the web that have been developed in response to exactly this issue in the past. Or if you looked at my profile as a speaker, I'm even local.]
  • Can you suggest any topics? [What, like "breastfeeding 2.0"? Women in technology talk about the same things that men in technology do, we don't need special tracks or topics. We just bring some different perspectives to the table.]

He ended up with “thanks for your feedback, stay tuned and I think that you’ll really like what we have to offer.” Hmm, do I detect a dismissal?

This is such a perfect echo of past conversations on reasons why white guys choose only white guys as speakers as tech conferences. Lots of people are seeing the problem, and trying to do something about it. Just not the group of white guys who are organizing mesh.

By the way, today is International Women’s Day. Do your part by sending the mesh organizers a suggestion for a woman speaker, or post it here in the comments. Or better yet, if you know someone at any of the mesh sponsors, have them do it.

2007 03 08 meshconference
technology Comments (2)