[UbuntuWomen] Article: Computer World: Why women quit technology careers

[Elizabeth Bevilacqua]

Another interesting article came across my desk today, aysiu posted
this in the Ubuntu-Women forums:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=319212&pageNumber=1

Excerpt:

"Based on the demographics, it seems likely that they leave to start
families. Is that what happens? No. I'm not trying to pretend that
work-life balance is not important, but we found four other more
important factors about the culture and the nature of the career path.
We call them "antigens," because they repel women.

Tell me about those. The most important antigen is the machismo that
continues to permeate these work environments. We found that 63% of
women in science, engineering and technology have experienced sexual
harassment. That's a really high figure.

They talk about demeaning and condescending attitudes, lots of
off-color jokes, sexual innuendo, arrogance; colleagues, particularly
in the tech culture, who genuinely think women don't have what it
takes -- who see them as genetically inferior. It's hard to take as a
steady stream. It's predatory and demeaning. It's distressing to find
this kind of data in 2008."

-- 
Elizabeth Bevilacqua
http://www.princessleia.com