I have some other photos to share, but the set I found most interesting were those with European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli showing Rob how to ensure that Barbie’s hair is just right before a photo shoot:

I guess all that centrifuge training she did at the DLR comes in handy when she hangs with other astronauts.

Once VenusBarbie was set, then all four (Rob, Paolo, VenusBarbie and Chris2D) were ready to pose.

Good job, men.  And @VenusBarbie.

One of the things that annoyed me during computer science accreditation visits were the all too common references to women not being able to succeed in CS programs.  When I’d ask why, I was usually given one of these types of answers:

1. Women are incapable of thinking of complex topics
2. Women just don’t want to learn computer science
3. Women don’t want to study in programs where they are outnumbered
4. We’d have to dumb down the programs too much (see point 1).

It took all my might to simply record their responses and not fight it out.  I figured their answers might be a reflection of their program administration and management than of the women they are running out of their programs.  For instance, a computer science program chair told me directly that if he had to dumb down his program enough to get women to stay, "no one would be able to log in".  Tell me what sort of rewarding student experiences the females in his classes have on a daily basis?

Applied vs. Research Programs in Computing

One of the issues computer science programs have is managing the fact that they often exist as a research program but many students are more interested in studying computing at an applied level.  In other professions, applied means just that – learning to apply sciences in a practical, real world environment.  Other professions produce professionals just that way: lawyers, doctors, engineers, teachers. For the most part, they study in applied programs.  But in the research world, applied is the equivalent of dumbed down. So many computer science programs are designed to produce researchers even though the vast majority of students are there not to become researchers, but practitioners.  And yet most women are drawn to professions where they can see a direct link to studying and working on projects that will change the world.

I was thinking about this while speaking on the #SQLSat157 San Diego WIT panel this past weekend. When I got home, I found this great interview with Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College: Q&A What Women Want in the Communications of the ACM.  One of the questions was exactly what I experienced when choosing a program of study all those years ago:

You’ve talked before about the importance of teaching practical applications from the start, rather than waiting until students have mastered the building blocks.

We know from research that for women and minorities, the attraction of computer science is what you can do with it. It doesn’t mean they are not interested in complexity theory or other esoteric parts of the field, it just means that that tends to be the driving motivation. And in our experience, it’s not like women take one course or go to the Hopper conference and say, "I want to be a computer science major." It’s more like, you take one course or go to the Hopper conference, and you take the next course. And then you take the course after that, and by then you’ve taken three courses and you’re going, "Oh, I’m actually good at this, and it gets me summer jobs. Maybe I should be a CS major."

The curmudgeon computer science chair and his colleagues also had thoughts on programs that shifted their marketing and delivery, but not their content, to appeal more to women and minorities: it was cheating.  As an IT professional, I say "Let’s cheat, then".  Let’s ensure that computers science and other technology programs can step up their game to be more appealing.  As a business person and someone who interviews candidates for jobs, I want to see people who understand theory AND application of it all.  Cost, benefit , risk and all.  Saving the world.  Making a difference.

Information systems and technology programs are generally applied programs of study.  However, we tend to see them as lesser siblings of computer science.  Maybe we shouldn’t, especially as employers for organizations that don’t directly hire researchers.

Step Up

Do we need theoretical, research-only computer science programs?  ABSOLUTELY!  But we also need IT professionals who can fit solutions into a corporate environment.  One that can’t just think in terms of theory.  And I want a more diverse, educated workforce available to hire from.  Not just for the numbers, but because we get better solutions.  But in order to get this, our programs of study need to step up.

This past weekend I attended SQL Saturday San Diego, AKA, #SQLSat157.  This was my first time speaking at this event and I want to give lots of thanks and kudos to the organizers for putting on a fine event.

Because I arrived in town early to meet with friends from both the space and data world, I was able to visit the San Diego Air and Space Museum.  It was fitting that it was the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s Rice University speech on space exploration:

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

Not only is this fitting for motivating a generation to invest in space exploration, it’s fitting for professional development work, too.  We attend and speak at SQL Saturdays not because it’s easy, but because we need goals to serve to organize the best of our energies and skills. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been inspired to learn something new because I saw a fellow community member demonstrate how it could help make life for end users or co-workers better.  And SQL Saturday gives me a full day of these sorts of workshops and demos…all for free.  How great is that?  It means giving up a Saturday and for those of us who travel to speak, 2-3 days plus expenses.  And yet every time I leave one, I think "That was so worth it".

Sessions

I spoke three times at this SQL Saturday: DB Design Throwdown, the Women in Technology Panel, and Career Management for Data Professionals.  Between those, I was able to see just a couple more sessions.  I really enjoyed Lynn Langit’s (@lynnlangit | blog)  NoSQL for the SQL Server Developer.   Lynn did a fabulous job explaining the differences between SQL and NoSQL technologies, as well as demoing MongoDB and cloud-based technologies.  You should spend some time on her blog; she has a lot of great stuff with plenty of videos and demos.

I also had the pleasure of being on the WIT panel with Lynn.  This panel, moderated by Tara Kizer, focused mostly on how we can energize the next generation of girls (and boys) to be interested in IT careers.  Lynn is doing some fabulous stuff over on http://teachingkidsprogramming.org, where she and her partner, Llewellyn Falco (@llewellynfalco | blog )  are building a framework for, well, teaching kids programming.  

I talked about the importance of talking with girls in your life, which is my usual homework assignment for attendees.  Having someone in the IT profession share the fact that the industry isn’t just about typing and programming can make a real difference to a girl who just needs to hear that IT professionals can make a difference in the world.  In fact, I have another blog post coming up soon on that topic.

Download the Database Design Throwdown: The Trailer presentation.

Download the Career Management for Data Professionals presentation.

I also talked about people who think that there is no issue, or that continuing to work to ensure that obstacles are removed is wasted effort — either because there is no problem or that working harder at your job is a better solution.

My interview is part of series about women in Data Management.  Check out the interview and let me know what you think.  Are we wasting our time working towards a more diverse IT workforce?

I know I work in a man’s world.  Women make up a small percentage of technology professionals, but I’d like to see that changed.   Rob recently came across this report from the Ontario Labour Relations Board about a dismissed elevator company worker who had appealed his case to the board.  One of his defenses was that his behaviour was acceptable because there were no women working on the job site and therefore his behaviour should have been okay. In other words: it was a man’s world.

Wait until you read about the behaviour…Okay I should tell you to swallow that swig of coffee and put your mug down, first.

The responding party dismissed the grievor from employment when a video posted on the internet showing the grievor with his genitals exposed and his scrotum being stapled to a 4 x 4 wooden plank came to its attention.

 

Did that get your attention?  It did mine. I’d like to hope that it wouldn’t have been just females who thought that this act was inappropriate for the workplace.  In fact, the outcome of the hearing reaffirmed the dismissal and the behaviour was deemed to violate the company’s workplace harassment policy.  Think about that.  A guy who was stapling himself was harassing others.

Boys Will Be Boys?

Part of the former-employee’s defense was that the lunchroom where this happened was an "all male environment" and that this sort of thing happened on the show Jackass…basically that boys will boys.  This reminded me of a recent article from Business Week about the new trend for companies to recruit and hire Brogrammers.  These are anti-geek, all-male teams of programmers who like to "bro down and crush code".  I guess because that is "better" than being a geek.  I left a comment on that article in case you are interested in reading my opinion about companies who want to recruit only brogrammers.

But back to our elevator guy…

Some of the other wonderful things that took place in this broworker environment:

One individual (not the grievor) was offered $60 gathered from the people in the room if he ate the spoiled food.  He did and received the $60.  The grievor explained that someone watching what had taken place said after the money was paid, “what are you going to do to top that next week?”

The following week, the grievor suggested to the individual who had eaten the spoiled food that he would collect money from the group if that individual chewed off the grievor’s rotten toenail.  Some $75 was collected from about the same number of people.  When that individual chewed off the grievor’s rotten toenail, the $75 was paid to him.

Again, you’d think that gender had nothing to do with whether or not this behaviour was acceptable, but it was a part of the defense to state that this sort of thing happens when guys get together.  In fact, it turns out this might not have been issue until someone posted a recording of the stapling to the Internet.

There was no evidence that any one who witnessed the incident first hand was offended by the grievor’s conduct, the applicant pointed out.  To the contrary, both the grievor and others were cheering.  It was only after the video was posted on the internet that the grievor’s conduct became an issue and the grievor was not only not responsible for circulating the video so widely, he had sought to have it removed.

One of my favourite findings:

I agree with the grievor; exposing his genitals and permitting his scrotum to be stapled to a wooden board was not only inappropriate behaviour, it demonstrated a great deal of stupidity.

And in case you are worried about whether or not you need to update your organization’s workplace policies:

In my view, any reasonable employee would recognize that exposing one’s genitals and having one’s scrotum stapled to a 4×4 wooden board on the employer’s premises and permitting that conduct to be recorded on a video is patently unacceptable in almost any workplace particularly when the employer of the employees involved can be easily identified.  An employer, in my view, need not establish and promulgate a policy prohibiting that kind of behaviour.

I’ve also been in workplaces where there is a lot of harassment going on.  It’s always a tough decision as to whether I should just say "boys will be boys", to ask people to stop, to leave the room, or to escalate the issue.  I think I’ve only ever once escalated an issue and it just about killed me to do so.  But someone else was being bullied and she nor I could get the bullies to stop.  In the end, she had to leave and find a job elsewhere.  It’s tough to be the person who feels a workplace has become hostile. 

Lessons Learned

What I learned from this case:

• Your team members will have a huge range of opinions about what they think is acceptable behaviour and what isn’t.
• You are bound to cross that line or witness that line being crossed at some point in your career…or even many times.
• Sometimes speaking up isn’t about complaining…it’s about stopping something stupid from hurting everyone.
• Just because no one has reported you now, doesn’t mean someone isn’t going to report you in the future.
• Your activities in The Office matter because they reflect on the reputation of the company.
• If there’s a camera around, the pictures and the video will end up on the internet.  Act accordingly.
• I’m going to bring my own stapler to work from now on.

I’m wondering, though, where the team crossed the line, in your opinion.  Was it at the eating of rotten food?  The toenail thing? And was the behaviour more acceptable because there were no women in the room?  I really want to know what you think.

I’m glad the Board felt is behaviour was unacceptable even though there were no women around. It’s difficult find the balance between "it’s all fun and games here" and "until someone gets hurt".  But I think I’m really clear on this point: staplers are for paper only.

Karen SQLPASS WIT Panel 2011 (Photo credit: John Robel)

It’s International Women’s Day.  Yes, we get one day a year to celebrate our ladyhood.  Or something like that.

I used to snicker at meetings, classes and events focused on Women in Technology (WIT).  The thought of sitting around in a room full of women complaining about how hard it is to work in a man’s world did not appeal to me.  To think of rallying around a cause for pay equity drove me crazy because I had never met a woman who had ever asked for a raise.  I still have met only 2 who have told me they have done this.  I thought that WIT issues were only about man-hating and failing to ask for what we deserved.  Then an amazing thing happened.  I was asked to serve as a national spokesperson for the CIPS Women in Technology program.  I really didn’t want to do it, but agreed because I wanted to help.

Why was it amazing? Because I found out that most WIT initiatives aren’t about male-bashing and waiting for someone to make our lives better.  One specific cause that made me "get it" was the fact that girls who are interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) don’t pursue studies in these areas because we, society, are constantly throwing obstacles in front of them.  That got me going.  I had experienced the same things:

• A high school guidance counsellor who told me that I did not want to pursue a career in a man’s field.  That I would be lonely amongst all those guys and never feel at home.  Wow.  Was she wrong.
• A series of really terrible math teachers.  And by terrible, I mean a couple who were very vocal about a female’s inability to succeed at math…high school math.   Teachers who were also coaches who really didn’t want girls in their classes.
• Family members who didn’t really want me to study science.  My grandmother told me it would be better to marry an engineer than to be one.  So I did both.
• Messages from all around me that pretty was better than smart.  That pink is the only colour for girls.  That boys do fun things and girls take care of them.

So in my time as WIT spokesperson, I was able to see that we have a huge problem in society that the majority of the population is being discouraged from studying STEM and pursuing STEM-related careers.  Sure, no one should be forced into these careers, but it makes me mad to see smart, highly-capable girls being steered away from professionally and financially rewarding jobs.

Research

Recently the Girl Scout Research Institute released a report, Generation STEM: What Girls Say about Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.  In the executive summary, they outline their findings:

 

These findings, we believe, will lead to more comprehensive solutions to the underrepresentation of women in the STEM
workforce. We found that:

• Seventy-four percent of high school girls across the country are interested in the fields and subjects of STEM.
• Girls are interested in the process of learning, asking questions, and problem solving.
• Girls want to help people and make a difference in the world.
• Girls who are interested in STEM are high achievers who have supportive adult networks and are exposed to STEM fields.
• Girls who are interested in STEM fields are actually interested in many subjects and career opportunities—STEM is just one area of interest among many.
• Perceived gender barriers are still high for girls and may help explain why STEM fields aren’t their top career choices.
• African American and Hispanic girls have high interest in STEM, high confidence, and a strong work ethic, but have fewer supports, less exposure, and lower academic achievement than Caucasian girls.

This research can help to change the discussion on girls and STEM by offering a much needed
strength-based perspective focusing on what contexts are most supportive for girls. We hope
this research helps to take the conversation to the next level by focusing on how to use girls’
interests to cultivate career plans for them in STEM fields.

So girls do have an interest in the subject, they do want to work in these fields, but something stops them.  That’s what I talk about on WIT panels.  The number one question I get from people opposed to WIT programs is "why should we force girls into something they aren’t interested in"  The answer: we shouldn’t.  But research like the GSRI report shows that many girls who say they aren’t interested don’t have a clear image of what our careers are like.  Others have an interest, but don’t believe they can or don’t believe they should. This is a huge problem for the IT industry and for the economy.  More than half of our workforce is female, but things are getting in the way of them preparing for, entering and staying in the IT field.  I want to motivate those of us in the IT profession to actively do something to remove these obstacles, one misconception at a time.

You Can Help

You have the power to do that.  Talk to the young women in your family.  Tell them how great it is that you still have a job and your company is still trying to fill open positions.  Tell them about work you do that is making a difference in other people’s lives.  Talk to their parents about how important it is that they ensure their girls have a great math teacher or tutor.  Ask your local user group, DAMA Chapter or SQLSaturday why they didn’t have a WIT panel.  Volunteer to be on a WIT panel — yes, even you men. If your local user group doesn’t allow men on the WIT panels or events, ask them why they think this is only a female issue.  Start people talking about why they think WIT is an issue or not. Then share the facts with them.  Volunteer to speak at your schools.  Take a girl to a museum.  Let your daughter shop in the "boys" toy aisle, too.  Speak out when someone says that giving girls career options is forcing them to be less female.  Talk to people about this post.  Leave a comment.  Share it.  Get people thinking about the WIT issue as a problem for all of us.

You can make a difference.  One person at a time.  Do it.

This month’s Meme Monday assignment by Tom LaRock (@sqlrockstar | blog) is to write about the SQL Server community (#SQLFamily) and what it means to us. I’ve been blogging and Tweeting about my experiences as part of this community for a while and I sometimes get questions from those outside the SQL Server world about why I keep putting "SQL" in front of everything. It’s hard for me to explain because most of the time I don’t really mean SQL Server, but the SQL Server community people who have done so much for others and me.  There have been some amazing posts so far in this meme Monday. I’d love to see 100 blog posts about this topic.  Tell us what the #SQLFamily means to you.  If you don’t have a blog, this would be a great time to start one or you can send me your thoughts and I’ll guest blog them here.  Yes, there is still plenty of time.

I blogged recently about #SQLRun, a group of family members who ran the Portland Marathon, Half Marathon and 10k and raised a cloud of money for charities. This reminded me of one of my favourite quotes:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

- Margaret Mead

The SQL Server community isn’t just about having people offer up spare rooms, parking spots, or sofas for when I travel, helping each other out, or agreeing to sign a legal document for each other. The strength in our community is that we are working together to make the world a better place, often about data and databases, but sometimes about helping people get back to work or helping out with serious real-life problems. We don’t always agree on some of the things we are each trying to change (nulls aren’t evil, really), but we fight them out on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, then head to an after party, hangout, or SQLSaturday to show support for each other when it is needed.

I’ve seen many instances of #SQLFamily changing the world:

• Like many IT organizations, PASS has a Women in IT chapter and program. I’m hoping the work we do there is making a difference in society, even if it causes only one person to go home and talk to their daughter about taking more math and science classes in school.
• I’ve seen ad hoc groups of #SQLFamily people get together to volunteer locally, to collect supplies for the less advantaged and to raise money for charities. Not huge things, but something that makes a difference. I hope to see more that at future PASS events.
• I have discussions and debates with other family members about balancing data quality with system performance, but that’s what the world needs. We need passionate people to figure out together the right balance.
• I’m always happy to see people muster up a series of job interviews for SQL Family members who are looking for a new project.
• I love the discussions about how to manage work-life balance, especially since this is a problem that impacts women staying in IT jobs.
• I’m thrilled when I see personal offerings of encouragement, even when we don’t know what else to do.  In my #SQLRUN blog post I wrote about our Scream Team of real-life and virtual encouragers. There is a lesson there (and another blog post to come).
• Thousands of community members spend time blogging wonderful information about what they know.  This sort of giving is something I don’t see as much of in other communities. Sadly, this is especially true in the data management professional community.

So many people blog on a regular basis, hoping to influence others to think harder about providing better data to the world. That touches me, even if it’s a post about data models, indexes, keys, normalization or virtualization. When someone takes the time to put their thoughts down in writing so that others can benefit, I see the power of this community. My tagline is "Love Your Data" because I want to influence the IT community to think beyond code and table structures. However, I need to be influenced just as much about the operational side of databases so that data can be available and reliably accessed. Having said that, some of the greatest lessons I’ve learned came from people in the community talking about collaboration, professional development, human dynamics and other "softer" subjects. All of this because virtually everyone in the community wants to make everyone else successful. That’s amazing stuff.

That’s when I realized we in the #SQLFamily aren’t just about databases. We are passionate about changing the world for the better.

That’s what #SQLFamily means to me.

Information Management Magazine published a list of 17 females on Twitter to follow, drawn primarily from the data and information sector…and I’m one of them.  A great group to be part of.  Note that 3 of us are part of the DAMA International Board.

Sheryl Sandberg is the COO of Facebook.  I first saw Sheryl talk on a Women in IT (WIT) panel that happened during the recent Facebook Townhall.  Steve Jones (blog | Twitter) sent me this link as he knows I have a passion for WIT topics and discussions. I found myself nodding with agreement to what Ms. Sandberg addresses in this 15 minute video.  In one of the points, she shares stories of women who don’t "sit at the table".  I noticed behaviour throughout my career.  You’ve all been to large meetings where there weren’t enough seats at the conference table, so some people have to sit along the wall or at the back of the room.  In most cases, women will choose to sit away from the table in one of the "wallflower" seats.  I’m not sure why this happens.  I suspect it’s how we were raised to be nice, take the burnt cookie, choose the least comfortable chair, or otherwise put someone else’s needs ahead of our own.  There’s nothing wrong with giving up your seat for someone who needs it more than you do, but we ladies need to stop deferring our power to others because we aren’t thinking like the men are. 

I’ve heard that the most powerful seat in a room is one that faces the main entrance.  I almost never see my female co-workers take that seat.  Maybe they don’t know where the power seats are.  Maybe they don’t care to play the game.  Maybe they don’t feel they are worthy of it.  I can assure you that there are people in the room playing that game and they are keeping score.  It’s not just this one small behaviour, either.  We females spend too much time as wallflowers in all kinds of situations:  not submitting to speak at events and conferences, giving others credit for our own work, letting people in meetings shut down our comments.  I’ve seen all of them. 

In the Facebook Townhall, President Obama first spoke with Mark Zuckerberg, then after all that was done, a panel of women in tech discussed diversity and gender issues. What I found odd about this set up was that it almost sent the same message that Sheryl addresses in the above TED Talk: Sitting at the table. When I first read the agenda for the townhall, I was thrilled that the President of the United States was going to discuss a topic that was near and dear to my heart. Instead, the WIT panel was held as separate event on a different set. I was thrilled that such a high profile event covered the topic of gender issues in technology, though, and I look forward to future events where this issue can be addressed with the widest possible audiences.

Watch the video.  In 15 minutes Sheryl gives 3 pieces of advice that can benefit you in your career.  Keep asking yourself, "am I sitting at the table"? 

This Wednesday I’m giving a short keynote at the Ryerson University‘s Women in IT Networking Night.  This event includes faculty, students, alumni and IT industry professionals.

Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Time: 5:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Cara Commons in the TRS [1-148]

Attire: Business Formal

The WITM group is made up primarily of people involved with the B.Comm Business Technology Management degree program.  In looking over the program, I can’t help but compare it to my undergraduate degree in Computer Information Systems (CPT) from Purdue.  In that program, about 35% of our curriculum was in technical areas.  We also took multiple accounting courses, business law, operational research, psychology, and 3 economics courses.  My specializations were in database and organizational psychology.

Look at this excerpt from the BTM program overview:

They study the core business disciplines, such as marketing, operations, accounting, finance, human resources, and law. They receive a solid grounding in the world of ICT in subjects such as systems analysis and design, Internet & web-based applications, ICT architecture and infrastructure, and privacy & security. In their senior years, students integrate the knowledge from these two foundations to learn how ICT can make a difference in every business studying strategic application of ICT, the role of ICT in business processes activities such as supply chain, sales and customer relations. They learn about project management and the integration of ICT into business.

Our companies need more of these sorts of graduates: people who understand technology and how it supports business.  Unfortunately, our profession has not yet fully embraced these applied computing programs.  As employers, we need to continue to demand more of these types of academic programs.

I’m excited about meeting other IT professionals in my local community, especially those focused on the collaboration of business and technology.  I’m also looking forward to hearing more about this program. 

If you are in the Toronto area and would like to network, you can register to attend at witm.ca .

I used this slide in my recent Webinar sponsored by Embarcadero Technologies.  It’s a collage of photos to represent how it seems I spend my time.

I’d love to see your typical day as you would represent it.  It doesn’t have to be a collage or even have photos.  Just blog your typical day in something other than paragraphs and link to the photo above or leave a link in the comments if you don’t see a track back in the comments automatically.  Include the hashtag #typicalday in the title.

Don’t blog?  This would be a great way to get started. 

I’ll write up a summary blog post of all the submissions, along with my usual witty observations.

Go! Show us what your days are like (or at least what they feel like).

I have mixed feelings about the whole Barbie phenomenon.  I had a talking Barbie growing up and I loved her and her friend Stacey.  But I don’t remember much about the way she dressed…perhaps because my Grandmother sewed much of the clothes I had for her.  Maybe I was shielded from the party-girl outfits that were available. 

I recently found this as an online game at Mattel.com:

This is to promote Mattel’s recent Computer Engineer Barbie product.  What I find interesting is that they’ve focused on the data aspects of computing.  Most likely this is done only for the alliteration, but I do like getting early to girls about the importance of data.

I’m hoping that my friend @datadeva sees this, too.

Love Your Data.  Get your kids to love their data, too.

Having worked on WIT committees, programs and events for more than two decades (I was a national spokesperson for WIT here in Canada for two years), I knew that someone (and there will be more) would eventually anonymously complain that this one event should not be run with only female speakers.  Trolls must post anonymously because they don’t want to contribute to the discussion; they just want to make a good thing look bad.  This is my letter to Anonymous (an infrastructure DBA).

Hi Anonymous –

You forgot to mention the creepier one that most anonymous trolls give:

"What about the lack of overweight, old, ugly, grumpy white guys in the Supermodel profession?"

It’s a classic.  It is the most common response I get in letters to the editor, live events and articles from anonymous posters.  If you are going to go for it, please go all the way. 

This witty questions does not contribute to the discussion of diversity in any profession because it makes a huge leap of logic: that there is some physical trait in females that should keep them out of the IT profession.  That is flat out wrong. 

By the way, there are people who are concerned about the lack of diversity in the nursing profession. I support all kinds of programs that want to address real issues of diversity in all professions. 

The reason society should be concerned about diversity isn’t about making the numbers somehow magically match demographics of the full population, it is that we should investigate the reasons why certain professions aren’t diverse as the full populations and make corrective action to ensure that silly obstacles aren’t there. The most successful WIT programs focus on ensuring that young women understand the opportunities available to them and remove roadblocks they might have to considering a career in IT.

Much research has shown that young women don’t consider IT (and other STEM) careers because they:

1. Don’t even know what the career is about and therefore think it is all about grumpy evil-doing nerds working alone in a dark basement drinking Jolt Cola and typing all day. Think of the Wayne Knight character in Jurassic Park.
2. Hear from grumpy people that women aren’t smart enough to work in IT.
3. Don’t realize soon enough that they should have taken more math and science during their schooling and therefore can’t get in to certain programs of study, even though they have the aptitude to work in IT
4. Think that Computer Science programs are the only career path into IT
5. Read computer science program “marketing” materials, which most programs fail miserably at creating, and think “wow, what a boring technical wasteland”.
6. Think that IT is only about programming…alone, in a dark basement, typing all day. GOTO point 1.

But let’s focus on one of the main reasons (I presume) why SQLPASS wants to hold an event featuring WIT.  The reasons that most women give for not submitting abstracts for speaking:

1. Much more often than men, they don’t think that they are enough of an expert to give a presentation.
2. Much more often than men, they think there are so many "celebrities" in the field that the shouldn’t even bother submitting.
3. Much more likely than men they are more likely to feel that they are an "imposter" in the field and therefore shouldn’t even try to speak at an event.
4. They have so many more outside-of-work responsibilities that traveling a ways to speak and attend a conference is a significant roadblock to participating.
5. More often than men, they believe that they should be specifically invited to speak rather than just nominate themselves.
6. They are more likely to worry about the catch-22 of doing anything new: you shouldn’t do it until you have more experience doing it.
7. They think that no one will attend a session they give because they haven’t written a book (see point 4), they don’t travel the world giving presentations, or that someone else has already given a presentation on that topic.

I talk to many women who have wonderful thoughts, observations, scripts, data models, ideas, opinions, and other knowledge to share but won’t even consider submitting an abstract. Most of the time they give one or all of the reasons above.  Please ensure that you understand all those “more often” words in the above list.

The idea of featuring only females during 24 Hours of PASS isn’t going to solve all these problems, but it can go a long way to getting more women to present because it takes away some of the obstacles that many female IT professionals give as reasons to not even try.  With more women presenting at this one event, we will most likely have more women presenting at other events during the year.  You may not want that, but I want that if the reason women aren’t submitting is because they’ve never been encouraged enough to submit an abstract or to gain speaking experience.

Should SQLPASS bend to address those issues?  I think they should not have to do so, but often all it takes is a slight change in how women are recruited to make a real difference.  Personally, I’d like to figuratively whack all these women on the side of the head like Cher did on Nicolas Cage in Moonstruck: “Snap out of it”. Sometimes, though, helping people realize their potential is one of the most wonderful thing we can do for them.

Yes, I realize for the one event, some presenters will be excluded.  For this one event.  I would love to have a professional, insightful conversation about whether or not the one shift in a variable is acceptable, desirable, laughable, or even hurtful.  But we can’t have those conversations when one posts anonymously in short bursts of accusations.  It really doesn’t help the conversation at all.

I’d love to hear opinions on this, but in a way that advances the conversation.

Normally I’m not a fan of any special accommodations or “help” for female workers: quotas, waiving of requirements, etc.  I sometimes think that those sorts of programs send the wrong message, too.  But in this case, I’m a huge fan of what PASS wants to do here. There are plenty of qualified women to speak on these topics, but usually the problem is that women tend not to submit to speak, for a variety of reasons.

24 Hours of PASS To Celebrate Women’s History Month

By Thomas LaRock
Mark your calendars! The next 24 Hours of PASS event is taking place March 15 and 16. We are sticking to the two day format with 12 sessions presented each day.

Since March is also Women’s History month we’ll be carrying that theme through to the online event. As a result we plan to feature 24 prominent female speakers during the course of the event with session content as always, focused on SQL Server.

If you have an abstract in mind or have suggestions for specific speakers or topics, send us an email at 24hours@sqlpass.org. Deadline for abstract submission (max 250 words with a 125 word bio) is January 14.

You can read Tom’s blog post about how and why he came up with the idea of a female-only event.

I welcome this special event for a few reasons:

1. PASS is doing something to recognize the vast amount of knowledge women in technology
2. Choosing to promote the wonderful female speakers out there during Women’s History Month (which also includes International Women’s Day and Ada Lovelace Day) is a great way to honour and recognize all the good work that millions of women do in IT around the world.
3. Encouraging female speakers is the best way to build a pool of qualified speakers for other events like SQL Saturdays, SQLRally, PASS Summit, Enterprise Data World, DAMA Chapters, etc.
4. I believe that this one event will do more to encourage more women to speak at events that all the encouraging e-mails and blog posts could ever accomplish.

While this is a PASS event, not every presentation will be just about SQL Server code.  I typically give my Database Design Contentious Issues presentation at in-person events and one of my database design-related presentations for virtual events.  They might include SQL Server content, but they aren’t just about the DBMSs.  If you have a presentation that you’ve given at a DAMA event, there’s a good chance you can present it at a PASS event.

So I need you to help:

1. If you are a female and work with data, please put together an abstract and submit it.  Now.  I’d love it if they had 300 abstracts to choose from.
2. If you aren’t female, please personally ask one of your female co-workers to submit an abstract.  Do it now…it will only take a couple of minutes.
3. Please retweet this post, post to Facebook and LinkedIn about this amazing opportunity to highlight female IT professionals.  Let’s show the world what #WIT has to offer.

I am excited about this event – I can’t wait to see it unfold. Please help us by getting the word out.  Let’s make something happen.