Sheffield Geek Girls are celebrating Ada Lovelace Day, but a comment from a female colleague that they felt more alienated by the “girl” label than the “geek” got me thinking.
Ada Lovelace Day is not political, it’s inclusive –blogging being a sharing of ideas and knowledge. Therefore are we in danger of politicising this by holding Geek Girl celebrations and alienating some women currently working in technology as they don’t see the personal connection of a matching set of chromosomes, whilst alienating another section of the community through fear of those awfully clever geeks?
I hope not; I believe we are a long way from the early 90’s when we went into battle in androgynous garb, armed with briefcase, big earrings and even bigger hair! Sisters were doing it for themselves, mainly with shoulder-pads that would have qualified us for try-outs with the Green Bay Packers and Girl Power seemed more about becoming top dog and doing over others before they did over you.
What we should be encouraging is inclusivity and community as it is the masses we must reach and not the elite. I am in awe of anyone who excels in their profession and the blogs of women in science and technology are truly inspirational. But what of the rest of us who are not brilliant, who will never win the Nobel prize or have an Oxford college dedicated to them; should we be funnelled into the caring professions or herded to the call centre?
Science and technology is a profession in which women can work at any level, what I think we suffer from is not from sexism but elitism. The inspiring women I would like to blog about are the ones currently working at the code-face. They are not high profile and in the case of my colleague don’t think they are good at encouraging other people. I disagree; their inspiration is in being true to themselves, making their choices and enjoying their chosen profession. They inspire by their very presence, “if they can do it so can you” is the message we should be putting out to women everywhere and to girls at GCSE option time.
