back to article 'IT is no place for the little ladies', says Dell mouthpiece

Texan tech titan Dell has been forced to assert its commitment to equal rights in the workplace after a Danish funnyman hosting its channel event in Copenhagen rattled off a string of sexist jokes. The channel and indeed the tech industry is known for being male dominated, a point that - if we are being charitable - outspoken …

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  1. AlgernonFlowers4
    FAIL

    Satire is Dead

    And Irony!

    1. Bradley Hardleigh-Hadderchance
      Trollface

      Re: Satire is Dead

      And so, unfortunately is Bernard Manning.

      Now there would have been a missed opportunity...

      "Mah Wahfs sso ffatt".

      Classic. He shall be dearly missed.

      I wonder what Bernard would have made of the computer age?

      This stuff is lame - Dell employing Bernard would have been the real deal.

      Nobody takes any chances anymore, do they?

  2. LinkOfHyrule
    Joke

    Roy Chubby Brown, Frankie Boyle and Jeremy Clarkson

    Clarkson hosting a Google event...

    "I think Google is gay. I think you're all gay because your logo is made up of lots of different colours and it reminds me of those flags you see outside gay pubs. There I said it! So I must be right! Cos I'm Clarkson! If you don't want to be gay, use Bing! - what do you mean I am not being paid now?"

    Week later, his PR person issues an apology statement - which basically means he fires up a template in MS Word and dose a find and replace for BBC + Google and Gay + Germans. Standard stuff really, it happens so often!

  3. Shane8
    Pint

    LEGEND

    "Roy Chubby Brown" absolute legend!

    1. Hollerith 1

      Re: LEGEND

      Legend -- as what? Never understood why humour at the expense of those the group being addressed has made well sure are excluded, held in contempt or dismissed as of no importance is classic or legendary.

  4. Ross K Silver badge
    Devil

    Can we please...

    ...have more McAfee ads on The Channel? The articles are getting in the way.

    kthxbai

    1. Dave 62
      Flame

      Re: Can we please...

      I feel cheated, on my little lappy screen the edge of the ad is cut off, I get ads for "cAfee: el Company" (half-arsed job? McAfee? Never.)

      What's worse, when I click in what is traditionaly the dead space where you click to regain your scroll I don't get sent away to a website for a third-rate smart phone.

      On the bright side at least our beloved "El Reg" doesn't run ads for shit they know no techie worth his or her salt or any semi-sentient non-techie like myself would ever buy or recommend.

      1. Dave 62
        Trollface

        Re: Can we please...

        *worth his salt

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Can we please...

      where? I assume it's under the big blank space with a flash block play button on it

      1. Dave 62

        Re: Can we please...

        Not at work (I'm on a statuatory break!) where I need written permission of the IT dept to download or install *anything*

      2. Ross K Silver badge

        Re: Can we please...

        Huh? My corporate overlords were using OS/2 until recently. IE6 is cutting edge around here.

    3. Aaron Em

      Re: Can we please...

      The Reg has ads? When did that happen?

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

    4. toadwarrior

      Re: Can we please...

      Use a small screen. My android only shows the content with the ads off to the side. I hardly ever realise they're there.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      Re: Can we please...

      And, while you're at it Reg webmonkeys, could we have more pointless subdomains, all with their own separate login form and "keep me logged in" cookie that doesn't work?

      Sometimes, I have time left over, after logging in separately to your half dozen or so separate subdomains every fucking day –and have to resort to reading the articles, to pass the time.

      1. Tim Parker

        Re: Can we please...

        "And, while you're at it Reg webmonkeys, could we have more pointless subdomains, all with their own separate login form and "keep me logged in" cookie that doesn't work?"

        ..as if to prove the point, I had to log in again to upvote this. Genius.

    6. Framitz
      Alert

      Re: Can we please...

      Ads? I don't see no stinking Ads... Adblock is my friend.

      1. Horridbloke
        Facepalm

        Re: Can we please...

        Shhh, for pity's sake....

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Dell Women's Entrepeneur Network" !

    And and to show that Dell are not sexist I assume they also have a "Dell Men's Entrepeneur Network"?

    1. Jeebus

      Re: "Dell Women's Entrepeneur Network" !

      Pop at PCism, you're doing it wrong.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Ah, reminds me of that old nursery rhyme.

        Ding dong Dell,

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Dell Women's Entrepeneur Network" !

      likewise to prove the police aren't racist they need a National White Police Association

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "likewise to prove the police aren't racist they need a National White Police Association

        My Thoughts Exactly!!

        I hate racism, positive or otherwise!

        1. Alfred

          Re: "likewise to prove the police aren't racist they need a National White Police Association

          So, let's imagine a hypothetical problem; say, in a given industry, black employees are routinely discriminated against. Some employees want to set up a group to counter this, and you insist that another group be set up as well to do the same thing for white employees, despite the fact that those white employees aren't actually suffering the problem?

          I need to repair my roof - should I also repair the flooring, which is not in need of repair? I might open a tin of beans tonight. Should I open all the other tins as well?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            @Alfred

            what a load of balls. Setting up a racist organisation to counter alledged racism is racist

            In your scenario "Some employees want to set up a group to counter this" then how about they set up a group called "we the undersigned are against racism", then all the people of any colour black/white/brown/yellow/blue who are against the racist behaviour can join.

            Setting up another racist organistion is partioning the force along race lines and effectiving encouraging and not discouraging racism in the work environment.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "likewise to prove the police aren't racist they need a National White Police Association

          "I hate racism, positive or otherwise!"

          Nothing positive about 'positive discrimination". It really boils my piss when anyone mentions it.

          I have, hopefully*, never offended or discriminated against anyone due to colour, religion, sex, sexual preference or anything else that comes to mind.

          I have, however, been a victim of 'positive discrimination' where someone else was given a promotion before me. Explained as 'making up the numbers' by the management, this person showed time and again that they were not skilled enough for the position and spent most of their day surfing the net.

          But even before I was a victim, I was against any form of discrimination.

          *hopefully as its hard to tell what people will be offended by.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Shirley not

    Women, strangely are better at IT than Men.

    Now I know that some of you will disagree but it is indeed a fact. They are also better engineers.

    Why? well that's simple. They know how to follow a process and implement it. They have very little ego problems and they understand the objective. However, men are better at the initial design process.

    A fine example of this is map reading, men are great at planning the route and knowing where they are on a map. But sadly lack the ability to follow the route that they have planned. Women on the other hand are terrible at planning the route but are great at following the route instructions.

    I have had the pleasure of work with numerous women in IT, all of whom are efficient beyond belief. And also the only ones to argue in a logical way with sys admins. Sure you think I'm wrong which is why you'l press the red arrow. thus proving that your ego has just got in the way.

    1. Richard 120

      Re: Shirley not

      I'm not going to disagree, but I've only worked with 2 or 3 women who actually do anything related to IT, one's a great linux admin, one does a first rate job as a support analyst and one works leading our testing. The trouble is, they're the exception rather than the rule, all the other women I've worked with and known just don't want to get involved in the technical and it's far easier for them to get administrative jobs, or even easier sales & marketing.

      I don't know whether that's as a result of the existing male dominance or whether it's as a result of female predisposition to those sorts of roles.

      For the same reason I don't know whether little girls are predispositioned to like pink and hence there are vast numbers of pink products marketed to little girls, or do little girls like pink because everything marketed towards them is pink.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Shirley not

        I would argue that there isn't enough of them to to class them as the exception. We may live miles apart but have both met these exceptions. Does that mean that based on our collective experience that this is actually the norm?

        Oh and little girls like pink due to social engineering, the fact is that pink was a boys colour until a hundred years ago. Also a quick bingle (bing and google) tells me that Gender color preferences is currently under study in order to determine why girls and boys prefer different colors.

      2. Jacqui

        Re: Shirley not

        "For the same reason I don't know whether little girls are predispositioned to like pink and hence there are vast numbers of pink products marketed to little girls, or do little girls like pink because everything marketed towards them is pink."

        FWICR, a couple of centuries ago blue was for girls and pink for boys - there is no inherited color preference.

        Regarding programming, most females of my generation learnt to read/execute and write code when they were 10 or younger! The programs were called knitting patterns. variables, iteration, recursion, block scoping etc were all included in a complex pattern - even reverse polish! When I was studying I remember discussing this with a little old lady of 80+ on a train into london who was busy knitting a jumper as we chatted. Her comment was "doesn't everyone know this though - its so obvious"!

        And the multi-tasking gender bias. Anyone can learn to multi-task. Any decent cook or chef has to do it.

        There is a rule that you can best manage up to six things at once- more than that and most people start to lose track. The "rule of six" is used when designing magazine covers, blocks of flats, user interfaces etc.

        There are differences between us - but not as many as some people seem to think there should be. :-)

      3. Hollerith 1

        Re: Shirley not

        Girls are trained to like pink. From about 6 seconds into life, they are already being shaped to 'be a girl', in the same way boys are shaped to be boys. As has been pointed out elsewhere, pink was considered a masculine colour until fairly recently, blue being seen as gentle and natural. Girls get praise when they act girlish, and chastised when they don't want to sit quiet and play with dolls. How many times have I seen two children playing about and it is the girl who is told to sit still; the boy is allowed to continue to rampage about, because 'that's what boys do'.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

      4. jukejoint

        Re: Shirley not

        Someone I know at university did a study of greeting cards for children, their illustrations and messages: in American shops, not the UK. All of them used certain colors for each gender (don't make me say which colors) and the images for boys without exception were action figures, superheroes, or some other entity, say, in the animal kingdom, in action or being powerful. Additionally, the words used were enhancements to the images of power, action, fun, and an invitation to participate in the world.

        The cards for girls were uniformly depictions of princesses, queens, fairies and other representations of female power depicted in - without exception - passive poses holding flowers or food, and with passive phrasing like "you're sweet".

        I should point out these observations were from the mainstream card shops carrying Hallmark, American Greetings, etc., & also at drugstores and discount stores, and not the boutique "hip" paper palaces in the affluent neighborhoods where you will find small-edition cards. (I wonder now how different, if at all, they might be.) This was a survey of cards mass-produced for the, um, masses.

        This is but one example from one slice of marketing. I really don't think little girls have a real choice - it's what is produced for them.

        In my 3rd year of school my favorite color was black. My mother said I could have any kind of hula hoop I wanted. I chose black...for my school bag, for everything. God bless my mother for getting me a black hula hoop.

    2. Vic

      Re: Shirley not

      > They know how to follow a process

      > They have very little ego problems

      You've clearly never met any of my ex-girlfriends.

      Vic.

      1. Belgarion
        Trollface

        Re: Shirley not

        > They know how to follow a process

        > They have very little ego problems

        ...and they make great sandwiches. (ducking and running for cover...)

      2. JetSetJim
        Joke

        Re: Shirley not

        You can't be in IT, then, if you have ex-girlfriends that people can meet.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Shirley not

      As someone who has interviewed and employed both women and men, I found they are both equally bad at IT...

    4. Nuke
      Alert

      Re: Shirley not

      Where the hell do you meet these women?

      1. Ole Juul

        Re: Shirley not

        Where the hell do you meet these women?

        First you have to ask for a day pass.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why has either got to be better than the other? We're all different, all come from different backgrounds, different educations and different qualifications. We all have skills we've learned ourselves and been taught. I don't see a man or women in my colleagues, I see a person I hope can help me get the flipping job done and we both get through the day without any unnecessary pain or accidental deaths!

    I'll leave you with my favourite quote on diversity by the great Paul Calf.

    "You see I'm not prejudiced! I'm not, really! I don't care if you're bi, gay, man, women, black, asian, queer, TV, straight, I don't care! However if you give me any f**king grief you'll get some of this! *waves his fist*"

    1. JEDIDIAH
      Linux

      IT Avengers Assemble!

      Everyone has their own skill set and something they bring to the table. Not everyone needs to be Tony Stark. It's really much better if everyone isn't Tony Stark.

    2. h4rm0ny

      Not only is there no reason why either sex has to be better than the other, any difference there actually is, if there is one, is only going to be a tendency. The actual difference in ability would have to be HUGE in order for the utility cost of pre-judging someone by their sex to be worth while. I.e. If women are 10% better at IT than men on average, is it at that point worth assuming that any individual woman you meet is going to be better at IT than any individual man? No, of course not. And 10% is already a very large difference. Take it up to 50% (i.e. absurd difference levels) and mathematically it's still not efficient to make an assumption about any given man or woman.

      Oh, and the "comedian"? He's just significantly diminished the chances that I'll source from Dell next time around. Because I'm all emotional and irrational like that. ;)

    3. jukejoint
      Paris Hilton

      Typo or not?

      I like the quote - is it a typo, or is the quote really equating a 'man' (singularly) with all 'women'?

      That's hot! What about celebrities? Does he like celebrities?

      Luv,

      Paris

  8. ZenCoder

    I'm outraged.

    I'm officially boycotting any and all Danish comedians as providers of IT equipment, support or services and I strongly urge everyone else to do the same.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I don't think he can fairly be criticized for saying

    "men were responsible for the greatest inventions in history"

    Although usually they came up with those inventions as a means of getting sniz on the reg.

    I believe there is a James Brown song with words to that effect.

    1. jukejoint

      Re: I don't think he can fairly be criticized for saying

      oh yes I think he can be criticized....men are great at taking credit for women's help. IMO things not invented by men were either stepped on (suppressed, or credit given to a male) or unrecorded. Take literature. Also, can you write a sonnet if you haven't been considered important enough to read? Is it a climate for growth when you have to masquerade as another gender to get work published?

      Take off your clothes AC, and let's see what we've got to work with. That's right honey, I'm married but I'm not dead! Don't worry about him, honey, it's just bizness. That's all. Good boy. Now go and fix your mommy a sandwich...oh can you get rid of your kids next weekend? I want to drag you around the benefit party and make all the other gals' implants implode....

      Just one more thing I request honey: please be aware of how you 'talk over' us women. When speaking with a woman men seem to be casting about looking for any excuse to break the conversation - focusing gaze over the listener's head, breaking into the conversation to greet men that enter, starting conversations with said men and leaving prior conversation dangling! (Because, I know, it was too wordy/long/required attention.)

      I happen to like men, ya know? It is hard to explain, sometimes, why. I guess I was Born That Way.

  10. Framitz
    Happy

    Women are here

    I work for a fortune 50 company. Nearly 1/2 the senior IT staff is women.

    My boss is a woman, her boss is a woman.

    I like women, and have no problem working for my boss, she's highly competent.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Boss is a woman, her boss is a woman...

      Coincidence or not?

      1. h4rm0ny

        Re: Boss is a woman, her boss is a woman...

        "Coincidence or not?"

        Good question. Because I see a lot of men whose bosses are also men... It makes me very suspicious now you mention it. *narrows eyes*

    2. Wibble

      Re: Women are here

      And how many are engineers? Management and project managements isn't IT per se.

      It's saddening that there are so few female techs. Just attend any technical IT course for proof.

  11. johnwerneken
    WTF?

    curious which part is "offensive"

    Let's see if I get it. Dell and its entire industry are notoriously male-dominated. Someone on Dell's dime makes fun of Dell et al for this sexist behavior. Now Dell is apologizing for the remarks intended to chastise or enlighten Dell? What a weird society we share...

    1. Wibble
      Holmes

      Re: curious which part is "offensive"

      Truth hurts

  12. Francis Boyle Silver badge

    Rolling pin?

    Probably not a good idea to get your material from out of copyright books.

  13. Purlieu

    Women multi-tasking

    I think I've seen that video

  14. Wize

    "...but last night, the corp wrote on Google+ to apologise..."

    So they apologised somewhere that no one would see it.

    The newspaper equivalent of printing a retraction in a small box on page 27 for something that was front page news.

  15. Inachu
    WTF?

    As much as I like equal opportunity in the workplace.

    Do not do it by walking on my back.

    By that I mean the following. Be you male or female when you are certified to do your job as it is now YOUR JOB. Do not make me do your job for you.

    You need to setup a server? Good great good for you. You build it. You carry it and you place it in the rack server. Unable to lift the server?

    Hey go join a gym and get strong! Stop calling me to lift YOUR server. When you can lift your own server placing it in the rack then I will call it equal job oppotunity.

    If you are unable to do your job you were hired to do then you need to be fired. Simple as that.

    /soapbox

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