back to article Women! You too can be 'cool' and 'fun' if you work in tech!

Hey ladies! Did you know it's cool to work in tech? EU commish Neelie Kroes is here to tell you all about it, after a study claimed that the lack of women in ICT roles was costing the European Union billions of euros. Happy woman at a computer HURRAY! Now that I work in IT, I'm so fun and cool and in the future! (I really …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Tom 11

    Stud

    I am hung like a horse and desperate for female attention, you'll probably only have to buy me one crate of Red Bull to win my affections, so come along ladies, join us in the Jetson-esque utopian future of ICT careers.

    That sort of thing? shall I go post it now?

    1. Charles Manning

      El Reg have this all wrong

      This is actually a razor company trying to promote armpit shaving.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    We have a ton of women in our IT department...

    ...Or at least, managers without any balls.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: We have a ton of women in our IT department...

      On their way to the Unix convention.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: We have a ton of women in our IT department...

      Righty, they should be promoting the real strengths of working in IT to women.

      "You can work 2 hours and be on Facebook / Twitter for the other 6! Why stay home when you can get paid to post crap!"

      That should get the ladies to sign up.

      1. Vociferous

        Re: We have a ton of women in our IT department...

        > You can work 2 hours and be on Facebook / Twitter for the other 6!

        Are you spying on me?!?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Utter Crap!!!

    There are lots of women in ICT, half my managers over the last 4 years have been women. I sit at a desk of 4 of 4 devs with 2 Guys 2 Girls. The whole testing team here is female and the last 2 testers who left were female.

    I don't see massive campaigns on getting more male nurses or more male anything for that matter.

    1. Alfred

      Open your fucking eyes.

      Did you actually look, or did you assume that because you don't see such campaigns on a tech blog, they don't exist?

      http://aamn.org/choosenursing.shtml

      http://www.cinhc.org/programs/recruitment/men-in-nursing/

      http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/health/operation-male-nurse-29479023.html

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_8140000/newsid_8147900/8147979.stm

      http://www.dw.de/german-government-campaigns-for-more-male-kindergarten-teachers/a-17143449

      and so on.

      1. Raumkraut

        Re: Open your fucking eyes.

        > Did you actually look, or did you assume that because you don't see such campaigns on a tech blog, they don't exist?

        He didn't say they didn't exist, he said he didn't see the campaigns. And frankly, neither have I. Meanwhile, the "we need more women in x" campaigns are getting plastered across the (inter-)national media practically every week.

        So if the "we need more men in x" campaigns exist, why aren't they getting as widely publicised as the female equivalents?

        1. Dr Insanity

          Re: Open your fucking eyes.

          What we need are meta-"we need more men in X campaigns", I shall start a "we need more "we need more men in X campaigns" campaign" forthwith and with immediate procrastination.

      2. Charles Manning

        Re: Open your fucking eyes.

        See, that's the problem...

        Blokes never see all these male nursing/kindergarten/whatever websites because they don't know they are there.

        The terachers at schools, and society in general, does not push them. We don't have bloke nurses sponsored to go to schools and talk about how cool nursing is.

        You managed to find 5 with Google.

        The females in IT/engineering barrow is pushed MUCH harder: newspapers, govt media blitz,...

        For instance, here in NZ a woman can get free engineering training at polytech. Blokes can't. There are huge billboards promoting girls in IT. Nothing about nursing for the boys.

      3. Shaha Alam

        Re: Open your fucking eyes.

        of course they didn't look. 100% of people who make these kinds of generalisations don't look.

        one might say, "not looking" is the very reason why generalisations exist in the first place.

      4. JEDIDIAH
        Linux

        Re: Open your fucking eyes.

        Why should he have to "really look". Isn't the whole point about these campaigns is that they grab the attention of people? You don't do that by hiding your message in a file cabinet in the basement.

        If you have to "really look" for it then it's a total crap advertising campaign now isn't it?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Utter Crap!!!

      There is also a lot of work being done to try to get male primary teachers.

      1. dogged

        Re: Utter Crap!!!

        > There is also a lot of work being done to try to get male primary teachers.

        Oh, I was under the impression that the Daily Mail had appointed the Paedofinder General to murder any man caught within 10 feet of a child which is not his own.

    3. OhDearHimAgain

      Re: Utter Crap!!!

      There was a campaign to get more men to teach in primary schools, but the fact you never saw it speaks of its success.

      My son is at college right now doing a B-Tech and there are 2 girls & 32 guys - pretty much the same ratios when I was at Uni 30 yrs ago.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tech and being cool?

    Maybe if you are the CEO of FaceBook.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Cool Joke

      "Tech and being cool?

      Maybe if you are the CEO of FaceBook."

      Like anything to do with Fakebook is cool! It's as cool as iPhone, FFS! (i.e. yeah last decade!)

      1. JEDIDIAH
        Facepalm

        Re: Cool Joke

        They need to take the Law & Order approach. Present "beautiful people" as practicing the profession. Then after a few years you will see a glut of people who look like that flooding the field. At least it worked for law.

        Applying to their sense of "glamour" may be chauvanistic and dirty pool but it's probably what it takes.

        This "problem" has very little to do with what goes on in tech or academia.

    2. Vociferous

      Re: Tech and being cool?

      > Maybe if you are the CEO of FaceBook.

      Facebook? Oh, grandpa, Facebook is so 2012! All the cool kids use SnapChat and WhatsApp now!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So she's cool 'cos she has a terminal and a couple of books?

    I must admit, as a bloke I prefer female bosses, 5 out my my 8 tech jobs I've had a female manager. They've always been gutsy, always willing to talk about stuff properly and always willing to front-up to anyone who tried to push the dept about, exactly what you expect in a manager. Not something I can say about every bloke I've worked under.

    1. Ragarath

      Erm don't tell anyone but that terminal in the picture is not connected to anything. Probably why she is so happy, she has no work today.

      Could be a wireless monitor you say? Okay where's the power cord? Induction, you cry! I only know of one induction powered monitor and it ain't the one on her desk.

      1. JLV

        >not connected to anything

        "What are you doing?"

        "Plugging in your computer"

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Unplugged Computer.........

        Roy: OK, lady! You've won this round! But we can wait. You will slip up one day. And believe you me, we will be there when you do. There will be some piece of evidence that will prove without any shadow of a doubt that you don't know anything about computers!

        Jen: [to Moss] What are you doing?

        Moss: Plugging in your computer.

        Roy: [Not realising Moss has found Jen's computer unplugged] It might be something you say, or something you do, but when we notice it - and believe me, we will notice it - it's gonna be a long way down for you, sweetcheeks!

        [Leaves Jen's office]

        Moss: He'll realise in a second.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        …and she's got pens and pencils in her cup. What respectable I.T. bod doesn't have a hot cup of tea/coffee just waiting to go everywhere?

      4. Michael Thibault

        >Probably why she is so happy, she has no work today.

        Not none, in fact... only the Post-It (tm) notes to deal with.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "I must admit, as a bloke I prefer female bosses"

      I prefer females full stop.

      (Simples. End of. :) )

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        > I prefer females full stop.

        Hell yes. Put me in charge of hiring and I'll fix the sausage fest.

        AC because, well, I might actually be put in charge of hiring. And a male preferentially hiring females... well...

        1. OhDearHimAgain

          So may be the problem is too many women running HR?

    3. rob 90

      I not sure about the EU, but across the pond, I have had just as many spineless male bosses as spineless female bosses. It has made me appreciate the few good bosses I have had.

      1. ecofeco Silver badge

        "I not sure about the EU, but across the pond, I have had just as many spineless male bosses as spineless female bosses. It has made me appreciate the few good bosses I have had."

        I've also had complete aresholes of both sexes as bosses.

  6. Aoyagi Aichou
    Coffee/keyboard

    "app developers"

    I see the obsession with the word "app" is reaching new levels when "coder", "programmer" and other nice words (even simply "developer) have been replaced with "app developer". And I'm pretty sure she doesn't mean designers, because there is plenty of women in that sector.

    Also, I'd like to see the study, please.

  7. Natalie Gritpants

    Wow this new monitor is the coolest

    It doesn't even need a power cable. IT rules yay!!!

    1. Jonesy

      Re: Wow this new monitor is the coolest

      It must be one of those new fangled wireless displays

      1. Gav

        Re: Wow this new monitor is the coolest

        See. Took a woman to invent it. No wonder she's delighted with herself.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Wow this new monitor is the coolest

          By pulling the power cable, the screen has become more like a mirror so she can apply some more slap.

    2. McHack

      Re: Wow this new monitor is the coolest

      I don't think it's even a monitor. No openings for ports or power, no vents, plastic looks crude.

      Maybe it's a picture frame for the office, so you can look extra professional with more than one monitor on your desk.

      They slipped a mirror into this one, then told the nice woman she was looking at a portrait of success.

      *click*

      1. larokus

        Re: Wow this new monitor is the coolest

        Somebody sticky taped some c+ syntax on it and she is enjoying all the codey 'fun!!'

        1. Toastan Buttar

          Re: Wow this new monitor is the coolest

          "Somebody sticky taped some c+ syntax on it".

          Like an extra "+" symbol, perhaps?

    3. Midnight

      Re: Wow this new monitor is the coolest

      She's trying to impress Moss and Roy by looking busy, but doesn't know that they just came into the office to plug in her computer.

  8. Fading

    Not enough Women in the Drainage and Sewer Maintenance industries either.

    I look forward to the EU campaign to redress this imbalance.......

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not enough Women in the Drainage and Sewer Maintenance industries either.

      There are plenty of campaigns to get women into engineering - of the civil variety in the examples you cite.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: Not enough Women in the Drainage and Sewer Maintenance industries either.

        My ex-wife's a roofer. She went for a local position with Network Rail, but they said it was a bit above her station.

    2. larokus

      Re: Not enough Women in the Drainage and Sewer Maintenance industries either.

      Now that is 'fun'[ny] shit

      And who downvoted the post above me?

      I thought it was hilarious!

      He could have said the last time he saw a woman on the bins he was inserting her pieces into them, which is where I thought he was going..

  9. Evil Auditor Silver badge

    I absolutely agree, there should be more women in tech. But don't be fooled, cool it ain't, not for the vast majority.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Adam Foxton
        Boffin

        It depends entirely how you present it

        I'm an ROV tech-cum-engineer-cum-tech support. Which sounds dull as dishwater.

        If anyone asks, though, I go round the world fixing robot submarines. Much, much cooler sounding!

    2. ecofeco Silver badge

      What Evil Auditor said.

  10. Gav

    Speaking as one of the few

    What's the best way to encourage people into an industry? How about insulting all those already there?

    "ICT is no longer for the geeky few – it is cool, and it is the future!"

    1. Vociferous

      Re: Speaking as one of the few

      You find "geeky" insulting?

      Geeky is what's best in humanity, it's seriousness, honesty and knowledge. Cool is shallow popularity contest.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I work in IT security, and out of an office of 15 people, the only women are the ones who come in after hours to clean.

    1. TRT Silver badge

      And steal all your secrets...

      1. Gav

        And insert bugs in your code. They certainly weren't there when you wrote it!

    2. NogginTheNog
      Stop

      Now THERE'S a campaign worth discussing!

      Why are by far the majority of low paid/part time jobs being fulfilled by women?!

      1. dogged

        Re: Now THERE'S a campaign worth discussing!

        You answered your own question there.

        The majority of low paid jobs are part time. Women are often attracted to part time work, often simply because childcare is so fuckin' expensive.

        It's not discrimination, it's economics.

        1. Havin_it
          Trollface

          Re: Now THERE'S a campaign worth discussing! @dogged

          >Women [...] childcare

          Really? No discrimination there? 100% sure about that?

          1. dogged

            Re: Now THERE'S a campaign worth discussing! @dogged

            > Really? No discrimination there? 100% sure about that?

            Positive. MY other half and I both work around the bloody nursery. Except she's a doctor in a hospital and required to do shifts so all those weekends/nights/on-calls are the times when I do all the childcare. All of it.

            Also, fuck you.

            1. Havin_it

              Re: Now THERE'S a campaign worth discussing! @dogged

              Wow. High horse much? You do realise I wasn't accusing YOU of discrimination, right?

              The OP pointed up an example of discrimination in society (maybe bias is a better word in societal terms, but whatevs); you, while seemingly moving to deny such, simply moved the focus to another aspect of that discrimination.

              If childcare is always shared 50/50 by parents (I'm delighted to hear that this seems to be the case with you and your partner, but you aren't the norm), then it would have been unnecessary for you to specify that *WOMEN* tend to go for such jobs. What, men don't too? Oh no, that was the OP's point, to which your reply in no way countered the existence of discrimination.

              Something something fuckity-fuck grrr. (Unless you were reverse-trolling, in which case Brilliant!)

      2. Michael Thibault

        >Why are by far the majority of low paid/part time jobs being fulfilled by women?!

        Work is highly over-rated and women take cognizance of this fact?

  12. Rosie Davies
    Thumb Down

    Coding isn't cool. Or at least it isn't cool outside of the first 5% of the time when it is all a fresh new idea and the last 1% of the time when the blasted stuff actually starts working as you would like.

    In between those two there are hours and hours of hard slog, tried and failed experimentation, arguments, irritations distractions and bloody meetings. Also, I am a woman, not a girl. I stopped being a girl <umblelumblelumble> years ago when I had my 18th birthday.

    Rosie.

    1. Evil Auditor Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Rosie, what you are saying is that 6% of your working hours actually are cool! I guess that's considerably above average :)

      They want to get them while they still are girls and probably believe that both working in tech and cool are fiddling fondleslabs and goggling google glasses. You know, before realising the painstaking part that actual IT work is.

      1. Rosie Davies

        I think it is cool but then again I am a geek and may have a different definition of cool from other people. The joys of laying down a fresh new architecture over the freshly revealed fields of the SVN repository or the juggling of statistics and explain plans so you get a result back in less than geological time. These are cool.

        Rosie

        1. Evil Auditor Silver badge

          I know, I know... those were the times... Unfortunately, I left the geeky job and now there's nothing cool left except for the rare joy of hunting down some fraudsters.

          1. TRT Silver badge

            The geeky R&D jobs were fun times. The low pay didn't matter when you enjoyed it. Now I just repair the damage left by cable thieves and it's still hard to make ends meet.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              @TRT

              Of course it's difficult to make ends meet, someone's nicked the cable that went in the middle!

              1. TRT Silver badge

                Re: @TRT

                I think it began was when I lost my job as brakeman on the Snowdonia Mountain Railway. After I left, things started going downhill pretty quickly.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Agreed

      " Also, I am a woman, not a girl. I stopped being a girl <umblelumblelumble> years ago when I had my 18th birthday".

      If there's one thing that REALLY sets my teeth on edge it's grown women calling themselves "girls"!

      1. dogged

        Re: Agreed

        > If there's one thing that REALLY sets my teeth on edge it's grown women calling themselves "girls"!

        It's worse when they call themselves "Jilly" but these two conditions often occur at the same time.

    3. AndrueC Silver badge
      Unhappy

      In between those two there are hours and hours of

      ..meetings.

  13. Pete 2 Silver badge

    The kiss of death

    Having an EU bureaucrat extolling the virtues of something is surely the simplest way to turn most people off it.

    Let's face it, most people are NOT COOL - just watch them dance if you need proof. Most people don't even try to kid themselves they are cool and the ones who do usually end up worse off than if they'd done nothing to "improve" in that area. So why should "cool" be considered an attractive or aspirational property?

    The basic issue is that thinking has been demonised. Most of the publications (both printed and web) place far more importance on appearance than content and most newspapers tabloids never have a good adjective to say about anyone who demonstrates an IQ over 100. TV follows the same path: with the most popular programmes and channels being the least intellectually stimulating.

    What we (in IT) need is the sort of publicity that sport has got. Even if most people are still couch potatoes and only ever exercise their channel-changing finger, they do still talk about and show an interest in physical activities. If you want to motivate people, a sporty role model is often the way forward. The question is: how do you get abstract, intangible ideas to become sexy? How do you make theoretical analysis interesting? How is it possible to persuade "the man in the street" to talk about philosophy, mathematics or op-codes when he's in the pub?

    Maybe those are the issues Neelie Kroes could work on, once he's solved the gender inequalities of IT

    1. Rosie Davies

      Re: The kiss of death

      > Maybe those are the issues Neelie Kroes could work on, once he's solved the gender inequalities of IT

      You may want to Google Steely Neelie Kroes. I am fairly sure that SHE knows a bit about gender - certainly more than you.

      Rosie

    2. Enric Martinez

      Re: The kiss of death

      Err... Mevrouw Kroes is a SHE ;)

    3. Suricou Raven

      Re: The kiss of death

      The standard way is to remind people of the vast wealth to be made. That worked in the dot-com boom, but these days people are able to see through the lie and realise that for every Zuckerburg there are a million code monkeys slaving away and getting paid peanuts.

      I can't be the only IT worker still getting annoyed by the parents demanding to know why I'm not a millionaire yet.

  14. localzuk Silver badge

    Missed the point?

    Why are the EU trying to make out that ICT is a 'cool' industry? Most of the time it definitely isn't.

    Sitting and staring at a screen for 10 hours trying to find the misplaced period in your code is as far from cool as you can get.

    What it can be is fun, yes but more realistically it is more often interesting, its challenging, and can be well paid (but it isn't as well paid as it used to be).

    Why aren't they promoting it on its actual strengths? Rather than trying to make out that women only go into jobs if they're fun or cool?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Missed the point?

      Because they know that women only go into jobs that are percieved to be fun or cool.

      1. Goat Jam

        Re: Missed the point?

        "Because they know that women only go into jobs that are percieved to be fun or cool."

        Nope, women go for jobs that are easy and require little technical ability. Air-conditioning is a mandatory requirement too, obviously.

        With IT you get the aircon it is true, but even drooling Windows helldesk monkeys still need *some* technical chops.

        1. JEDIDIAH
          Devil

          Re: Missed the point?

          Nah. There's plenty of room in IT for drooling mouth breathers. Just work for a larger company where they seek to make any task something that can be accomplished by a trained monkey. Get pigeon holed into a position that neither requires nor offers any real technical challenge apart from reading off of a script.

    2. Paul J Turner
      Joke

      Re: Missed the point?

      "Sitting and staring at a screen for 10 hours trying to find the misplaced period in your code is as far from cool as you can get."

      That's why they need women! Believe me they notice a misplaced period.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Woman's view point

    What does El Reg's very own Ms Stob make of this?

  16. Shady

    Sorry petal...

    ... the cool and fun bit bolted a while back.

    You should've been quicker, luv.

  17. Fading
    Coat

    If ICT was cool and fun.....

    Why is it only us nerds/geeks in here?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rather than trying to get more women into ICT, can't they try and get more talented people regardless of gender? There are far too many people coasting along and dragging teams down

  19. Yugguy

    I can't help but think that if ladies like the above really did work in IT, the only thing they'd attract is more blokes.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "The study reckons that if women held digital jobs as frequently as men, EU GDP would be boosted by around €9bn a year."

    Bullshit.

    If the split was 50/50 there would still be the same number of jobs, just less held by men, therefor the amount of money made would remain the same. Or are they saying that people are willing to pay more for software written by someone with a pair of tits? If they are I can point out several male devs around me that should be on a higher hourly charge out rate.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Well obviously...

      it's because women spend more in the shops.

    2. Havin_it
      Joke

      >Or are they saying that people are willing to pay more for software written by someone with a pair of tits?

      Pretty sure the Winklevoss twins work for themselves these days...

  21. Irony Deficient

    Europe is facing a shortage of ICT workers

    Brid-Aine, if it’s anything like most of North America, Europe is facing a shortage of ICT workers at current salaries would be more accurate.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Europe is facing a shortage of ICT workers

      "...at current salaries..."

      Exactly.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Give coding a try, see how fun it can be!"

    If steelie thinks coding is fun, I'm not going to one of her fun weekends!

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    But when you introduce women into the office, I can't swear, fart, belch, shout, etc....

    So no keep them out, unless they are not the sweet princess type! A woman that knows how to handle a screw driver is my type of girl. Legs to the their false eye lashes and 25mm thick makeup we don't want.

    1. Rosie Davies

      Sweetness you can fart and belch and shout as much as you like. So long as you know your cat5 from your cheezburgers and your AD from your ADHD it's all tidy.

      Rosie

  24. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    I love the way...

    That that have reduced the whole of the ICT to sector to "coding apps".

    Fucktards.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    > after a study claimed that the lack of women in ICT roles was costing the European Union billions of euros.

    When I read this I thought they were trying to say that more women in IT would result in lower wages.

    At least I *hope* that's not what they're saying.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Childcatcher

      As the EU leadership doesn't think that childraising is an activity of any particular merit whatsoever (should the population drop, one can just import little brown people from abroad), moving large chunks of the female population into Socialistically Powerful Worker Positions will embiggen the Yurop's GDP immensely and make it The Powerhouse of Intellectual Endeavours Worldwide!! This will pay down the monstrously grown incubating xenomorphs of state and private debt, assure the inflated salaries of the 30% working in nonproductive state jobs via appropriate tax revenues, and, if allied with cunning inflationary manoeuvers, enable the payout of the much-promised pensions at nominal values.

      VICTORY HAIL!

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Last thing you want to do...

    ...is to encourage anyone to get a job in IT. Shit managers, shit hours, under paid, under appreciated, over worked, crappy bean counters who won't invest, crappy users, crappy suppliers, crappy software, danger of being outsourced ; the list goes on.

    After 23 years working in IT as a developer and as an IT manager for the last 3 years I'm thoroughly pissed off with it and regret the day when I was a teenager I decided my career was to work in IT. Damn the BBC's Computer Literacy Project in the 80s.

    I'm so trying to encourage my son to head into almost any other career.

    1. Vanir

      Re: Last thing you want to do...

      You forgot the:

      bad health; sitting on your arse for those 'shit hours', staring at screens for those 'shit hours', commuting hours each day to do these 'shit hours'.

      crap family life.

      crap social life.

      I have no excuse of being a teenager to going in to programming; I was 37, I was under the delusion that programming was a very professional and rigorous arena of employment.

      Software engineering? Yeah, right. Like 'free markets' in which a shortage of something means the price of that some something goes down. Go figure and explain both to anyone thinking of taking up a career in programming.

      1. JEDIDIAH
        Linux

        Re: Last thing you want to do...

        Either you're into it or not. In the Soviet Union, there was no economic value to being an engineer. You were actually shat on pretty hard really. So you didn't enter that profession unless you were really into it and simply didn't want to another sort of (manual labor) job.

        IT today in the West is the same way. It's something you do because you are into it and that will make up for the crap you have to take.

        Try to work against this and people will just flee the profession as soon as they realize they've been conned.

    2. Mike Smith
      Thumb Up

      Not forgetting the...

      ... idiots who think that being able to use MyTwitSpace and run Microsoft Office puts them on a par with us 'umble grunts who actually know how computers work and whose coding skills go a bit deeper than FrontPage. If I had a fiver for every time I've seen the DTR light turn off when trying to explain a simple technical concept to PowerPoint jockeys who call themselves technical project managers or enterprise architects, I'd have retired a long time ago.

    3. Vociferous

      Re: Last thing you want to do...

      > Shit managers, shit hours, under paid, under appreciated, over worked, crappy bean counters who won't invest, crappy users, crappy suppliers, crappy software, danger of being outsourced

      What lines of work is this NOT true of? I know it's true in health care, the pharmaceutical industry, education, energy production, military, and government. Been there, seen that.

  27. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    Maybe a triumph!

    Isn't that Chell from Portal???

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    el Reg demonstrates WHY there are so few women in tech!

    Obviously, the woman in the picture is celebrating her ground-breaking invention of the Tesla effect-powered monitor! What's a girl gotta do to get some credit 'round here??

    She doesn't seem to have a Watson to "come here" in her moment of discovery, but no doubt she is yelling "Siri!!--NEAREST WINE BAR!!". Sadly, Siri isn't answering, because all that induced current has fried every mobile phone for 100 yards in all directions. Come to think of it, that probably explains what happened to Watson, who got a pacemaker last year...

  29. Paul J Turner

    The bleedin' obvious reason...

    That there are plenty of campaigns for employing women in fields dominated by men and as near as not nothing promoting the employment of men in women dominated fields is the huge saving in salaries to be made. Actually insist that employers pay equally and fine them 10 times their annual difference when they are caught not doing so and I reckon the campaigns will stop overnight.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Paris Hilton

      Re: The bleedin' obvious reason...

      Do you mean to say that female employee will be given the boot presto?

      Next: Campaigns bemoaning that fact that 100% of jobs are occupied by humans.

      1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

        Re: The bleedin' obvious reason...

        Next: Campaigns bemoaning that fact that 100% of jobs are occupied by humans.

        I'm very, very sure that they aren't. Not sure what species they are, but human they ain't.

  30. Goat Jam

    "Gravity" perfectly depicted women in science/tech

    http://www.returnofkings.com/30506/gravity-perfectly-depicted-women-in-science

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Trollface

      Also, another realistic portrayal of the career-driven woman: she’s completely alone. Having given up things like being a good wife and choosing instead to build whatever the hell it was she built in the movie, she ends up in her 40s, facing death in outer space, crying at the idea that nobody is left on Earth who will miss her or say a prayer for her.

      That part is spot on.

      This is why alcohol exists.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Surely that applies to ANYONE who's career-driven?

        Anyone who lets their career get in the way of having a life will end up tending towards that (which shall be known as the Bullock Limit).

        If you're driven to, say, spend 40 years creating some tech-box it will naturally become a focus of your life. I've done it on a smaller scale, went about a year without seeing friends because there was cool stuff to do.

        It's a choice to have kids, and once you've had them it's a choice to stay away from the workforce for a significant length of time (i.e. over a year). A good choice in both respects, but it is a choice.

        Working hard, focussed on a single goal is also a choice. In some cases a choice just as damaging to your career- if it fails or even if the wrong management get in the consequences can be disasterous.

        Both can lead to you being alone

        If you're successful it can mean sitting atop a very lonely tower, feeling accomplished but longing for the warmth of human contact.

        If you have kids it can mean looking up that tower, basking in a warm glow from the love from your kids but wondering just how far up the tower you could have got.

        Some people end up falling off the tower or wandering off from the base and still end up cold and alone, no-one to love them.

        Life is choices. Choices have consequences.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I don't understand

    Where would these billions come from?

    Job X will still be filled even if there isn't a woman to fill it.

    Could someone explain this to me?

    You're most likely going to have to speak slowly since I have utterly no clue as to where this money will magically appear from. I suppose it could be witchcraft. ..

    1. WatAWorld

      Re: I don't understand

      Where will the savings come from.

      Women, immigrants, the powers that be want them because the powers that be think they can be paid less. Paying people less, that is where the savings come from.

  32. mark 63 Silver badge

    not enough women snooker players either

  33. raving angry loony

    quote "Europe is facing a shortage of ICT workers, with more than 400,000 vacancies"

    Bullshit. Complete, utter bollocks. There isn't a shortage of ICT workers. there's a shortage of people who meet the EXACT criteria determined by NON-IT literate HR companies for "ICT" positions. The best example I have is the HR company that wanted 5 years experience in Java, when the language had only been INVENTED two years previously. The problem has only gotten worse.

    Fire/burn/murder-death-kill the HR companies doing the "searching", and the "shortage" would magically vanish overnight. There are thousands of people out there with the right knowledge - the incompetent trolls running HR just won't admit they exist.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      " the HR company that wanted 5 years experience in Java"

      It's reading comprehension fail - the manager asks for someone with 10 years experience AND Java, the HR person asks for 10 years experience IN Java. These awkward little two and three letter words...

      Far worse in my vidw is when the manager doesn't actually understand the job, the HR person understands still less, and recruitment is completely screwed.

      Example: Someone leaves who is, shall we say, an analyst with a good understanding of statistics who is using Java to process and present data. The someone who has left has mentioned to the manager that he would be able to do the job better if his knowledge of Java was better. For years the manager has ignored the implied request to go on some courses.

      Now the manager meets HR and the one thing he can remember is that the person who has just left has said he could do with knowing more Java. So they recruit a Java guru who knows nothing about business or statistics (which just happens to be 60% of the job.)

      Well established professions tend not to have this problem very much. Urologists rarely get recruited to run the fracture clinic, structural engineers are rarely asked to provide some 30s-style decorative touches. But ICT is still a bit out there and it's entirely possible that the people doing the job don't actually realise they are not really qualified to do it.

      There may not be a shortage in terms of the number of people needed, but I think there is a definite skills shortage. Recruiting more women would at least ensure that in future there is a wider talent pool to choose from - but it won't work until professional training gets better.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Suspicious Savings Stats Spotted

    Quote "...the lack of women in ICT roles was costing the European Union billions of euros"

    ...how is it costing billions?

    Is it because the women would be paid less for the same job?

    1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

      Re: Suspicious Savings Stats Spotted

      My thoughts to. How can employing more people of a specific gender specifically save money?

  35. Daniel von Asmuth
    Paris Hilton

    What this country needs is more male ballet dancers

    So, the EUvil Empire has 400K vacancies for ICT jobs. How many millions of candidates are fighting over those positions?

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sexism against men? No way.

    "In comments that manage to be patronising and sexist to both men and women"

    Agreed, except for one part. You can't be sexist against the oppressor, a man in this case. Just as you can not be racist against white people. The oppressor, the "white male" in most cases, just has to deal with the occasional piece of their own. Real equality is still a long way ahead.

    1. Mike Smith
      Thumb Down

      Yes way

      "Just as you can not be racist against white people."

      Cobblers. You can be racist against any group of people that share physical characteristics that are different to your own. I don't buy the populist crap that racism is confined to white people being nasty to brown ones.

      Here's one example - a self-righteous scribbler who in less than 600 words managed to direct twelve racist and sexist insults against a foreign dignitary for having the phenomenal cheek to be (a) female, (b) attractive, (c) friendly and (d) distinctively Scandinavian in appearance.

      http://nypost.com/2013/12/12/obamas-flirt-with-danish-prime-minister-is-a-disgrace/

      Calling someone a Danish pastry, hellcat, cupcake, tart, hottie and blonde bimbo, who was "voluptuously curvy and married" with "long Scandinavian legs" and who "hadn’t the sense to cover up and keep it clean" is bloody racist in my book.

    2. WatAWorld

      Re: Sexism against men? No way.

      "Just as you can not be racist against white people."

      Hitler was racist against white people.

      Stalin was racist against white people.

      People all over the world have racial slurs for white people.

      In China the oppressors are Chinese.

      In Zimbabwe the oppressors are black.

      In a over 50% of Anglo marriages in the USA the oppressor is a woman.

  37. WatAWorld

    They think they can drop IT salaries because women don't care about money.

    "the lack of women in ICT roles was costing the European Union billions of euros"

    Exactly how does that work?

    The sexists think they can drop IT salaries because "women don't care about money".

This topic is closed for new posts.