Aussie students set to hack cloud biz to hell Two hundred and fifty one university and TAFE students will today compete to hack the hell out of the Enterprise Wellness Initiative, smashing its apps, and pulling off feats of forensics. The simulated hack-off is part of the Cyber Security Challenge Australia run by a cadre of security companies with the Australian Signals …
"All female participants will be offered mentoring through the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet where they will be flown to Canberra and taken on tours to meet successful women in the industry and offered career advice."
Wow - a free trip just for being female.
Sure, it's a trip to Canberra but it's still flat out sexism; treating people differently purely on the basis of their genitals.
I am all for encouraging participation of women in areas that are traditional male-dominated (and vice-versa) but that kind of thing is for school-age children to get them interested early on. The recipients of these tax-payer funded trips are already interested and involved in this industry.
What kind of message is this sending? I wonder if the young women being targeted by this share the view that they are fragile and in need of special treatment and encouragement. I know some hella-cool she-nerds and not one of them would take kindly to being singled out for such special attention. That's one of the hidden benefits of IT not being a traditionally 'girly' pursuit - those girls and women who do pursue it have a tendency to be pretty confident in who they are and don't much give a damn what others think of their hobby/career choice.
On another note, this sounds like they'll be meeting women who are higher-up the management ladder of IT rather than 'coal-face' nerds. Again, what message is that sending? That women in IT are more suited to a management role than getting their hands dirty? Absurd.
Shhhhh. Something something MALE PRIVILEGE something something something PATRIARCHY something something. Check your privilege.
But if they had a similar set up for encouraging more men into the school teaching field - an area in which men are severely underrepresented - there'd be hell to pay. Because something something MALE PRIVILEGE something something PATRIARCHY something...
@Steven Roper
If anything, I'd be more on board with this for men and teaching. The reason being that teaching is a much more interactive job and one that relies on the personal qualities of the individual in a way that IT doesn't.
I think that it's important that children are exposed to both male and female teachers throughout their school life. This is especially true of encouraging more boys to pursue teaching later on - if they are not taught by male teachers then they may not consider teaching as a career.
On the other hand, I don't think it matters a damn if your IT team is predominantly male or female and it is particularly irrelevant whether the software you are using has been coded by men or women. (I mention this as one presumes this event is focused around programming skills, rather than the 'sysadmin' skillset.)
This ties into my statement of being all for encouraging girls and young women to take an interest in IT and other traditionally male-dominated sectors, as well as encouraging boys and young men to take an interest in female-dominated industries (like teaching) because that must be done during school - get them thinking about it and interested in it and help them see that these artificial demarcations are relics of the past and they shouldn't let them influence their decisions.
That's why having male teachers is more directly important than having female programmers.
But, to me, the important thing is that children and adolescents and young adults have the full gamut of career choices open to them and that means that we should make an effort to help them understand that there is no such thing as a 'girl' job or a 'guy' job - if you want to be a nurse, you be a nurse; if you want to be a carpenter, you be a carpenter; if you want to be a programmer, then nerd-on good buddy.
That's where we need to put the effort in, not in giving condescending 'special opportunities' to the young women who are already pursuing their dreams. They can stand on their own two feet just fine - I certainly wouldn't want to be the one to tell them they need special help because they are girls . . .
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