Stereotypes of females

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Is it really that rare for a female to like technology? Whenever I say I like it people get surprised and often ask if I only like Candy Crush/using iPhones. Is it really so unreasonable?

Last edited by Epsilon on 09 Jul 2014, 6:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well, I'm female and I'm a software developer and a gamer.
I'm sure we're in the minority but I know they're really are female techies out there.

People still think women are all emotion and no logic, and that's why they think women can't be good with technology. It wasn't that long ago society firmly believed that women couldn't be doctors or police or astronauts or anything other than a maid, a cook, and a sex slave.

didn't you know, technology is too complicated for most of us to figure out with our hormone-befuddled lady-brains.

Used to work in a help desk center that was very tech oriented. We had ladies, not all that many, but they were just like us blokes. Some were very tech savvy, some were just able to accomplish what they needed to.

I have yet to meet any of the fairer gender who is highly into audio equipment.

I'm not "highly into" audio equipment, but I am the most competent female I know when it comes to using it, putting together and running a sound system (not a real complicated one) and such.

It's not exactly something I get all excited about, but i can get around it quite well.

I have difficulty with computers, though. And it took me a long time to learn how to use my smartphone.

in the audio respect, do you see yourself as an outlier among females?

Probably. There is a real sense that working with the stuff is about understanding connections.

It is actually a bit of a conundrum to me that I have difficulty with computers, since in most ways I have a "male" brain. I am very math/science geared. My field is music, and I'm a pianist and composer. Same sort of thing....theory. Not nearly as many women in music comp as there are men.

I wonder how much of that difference is cultural and how much of that is neurological [in terms of typical male brain versus typical female brain]?

Yeah, I don't know. That's why I put "male" in quotes.

Interestingly, in my composition classes, I am the only female out of 5 (where I am right now. The percentage might be different elsewhere.) Yet, most of the professional composers I have contact with or I have contact with people they have contact with are female!

so the proportion of females graduating from music programs that are working in their chosen field is higher than that of males. as spock would say, "fascinating."

Well, I don't know for sure. Looking at the statistics would be interesting. And this is only in regards to composition. Performance is a whole different thing.

And if guys are not working in music, I would wonder why. Did they feel that music wasn't providing enough money to support a family, for example? In some ways, if a woman is married, she has more freedom to work in music if her husband has a decent paying job. Though I know of two unmarried female composers who are working (one is teaching in addition to composing) who are obviously supporting themselves completely with music work.

Sorry to hi-jack the thread!

not really hijacking the thread as it is adding key information to it.

Good question, isn't it?

My high school guidance counselor pointed me in the direction of accounting. I did temp work and did okay, but, I didn't fit in it. I switched to technical design and mechanical engineering which I LOVED and fit in great. After a few years, realized I was better at computers than most people I worked with and switched to system administration.

So, when I work in teaching labs, it's MEP software or programming. I'm always the only female instructor in those specialities, and there are fairly few women.
(Say a technical conference is 18% women, but. only about 2% in the MEP or programming classes.)

I come from a long line of builders, mechanics and tinkerers... at least the men. But. Maybe the women would have been, too, if they handn't been shoehorned into accounting etc.

wish I had some of those genes.