Tech Sexism and Spectrum Women

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I've been getting into coding recently. It's a lot of fun, although I'm still an amateur at it. I probably need some more training before I ever do anything in the tech industry (for right now, I'm having fun trying to get involved in the political world while on the spectrum). But I've read a lot of stuff about pervasive sexism in the tech industry recently. A lot of the people talking about it are NT women, but I was wondering if women on the spectrum face a lot of it as well, or if it's mostly an NT women issue. It's interesting to me because people on the spectrum might be closer to each other in temperament than to NTs of their gender, and supposedly a lot of the men in the tech industry are close to or on the spectrum, so perhaps women on the spectrum might have an easier time dealing with tech sexism than NT women?

I'm currently a student, but I believe it's a minority of men who are prejudiced against women. Nobody gives me trouble, and no one among my family or friends gives women in their workplaces trouble. That minority is offensive enough to be worth complaining about, is all.

it really depends on the sector in which you work, while in the defense industry I did not have a great deal of problem. When I ended up moving and had to work for oil companies I found an entrenched "good ole' boys" club and it was awful. My pay ended up being lower than an equivalently skilled man, and I got less consideration in raises and I was not treated as well in meetings. There really was not much I could do as my partner did not want to move from the area as she wanted to remain hear her family so I put up with the treatment and lower pay.

I also recently entered into programming and found that my interest was sparked immediately. I had been working with androids for awhile and had always liked technology from a very young age. I changed my major in college (I was in social work). The issue was I was very good at what I was doing, but I was bored out of my mind pretty much every class. I'm pretty sure that was my sign to switch and get out of there. As soon as I entered into program, I felt that spark that I feel when I use technology; it wasn't the same feeling at all as when I entered into the Human Services program... Anyway, I noticed one thing when I entered my first class for CS: it was mostly men, but there were three women including myself. The men would not speak to me, but they would to the other women. I was being on and off glanced at by at least three or four of the guys in the class. I don't really get it, to be honest.The guys I did talk to made it seem like I was an alien; they were confused and just kind of nodded their head and looked terrified when I asked them if they were experiencing an issue that I was, since they were getting frustrated and I wasn't (really stupid issue that most of the class was having, thanks to the tech department not adding our sign-in information). I posted in the Technology area of the forums asking a similar question, so you can go have a look if you'd like. I think you'd be better off experiencing it yourself than listening to other women complaining about it (those who do come online come on to complain about it. I assume most happy women wouldn't be coming online to post about how happy they are to be accepted. I think them being angry would make them more likely to post). I have yet to have any issues, but we will see. I think that the older the generation of people that you'd be programming with, the worse the sexism will be. The younger, I find, are more accepting of women being in these kinds of fields. I'm not saying that's true for everything, but it's just what I've noticed. I think regardless of being NT or not, women in these fields tend to have more in common with men. I don't see how or why it would matter. I am not sure about how some of us deal with sexism, but I would be angry if someone said something offensive to me. I'd end up lashing back at them in a playful way--that'd be the easiest way for me to deal with it. I'm not sure how NT women would deal with it, though.

Sorry for the long response, and here is my thread: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt245078.html

I am NOT playful with sexism, I deal with it quite head on, I do end up in trouble quite a bit especially online due to coming off so hard - many people actually take me for a TERF (if you are unfamiliar with the term, Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist ) which I can't really be since I have even dated a trans womon. The thing is I have been fighting against sexism so long I get fairly angry fast, even today I exited a page on facebook a friend had asked me to participate in just because I was sick of what was going on there. Sometimes I fight, other times I just block and walk.

Of all the women I've work with in the "Tech Industry", each one has demonstrated impressive skills in programming and troubleshooting.

Unfortunately, the men they worked with could not adjust to an harassment-free environment. They would go on for hours with their fart jokes and toilet humor, only to appear completely baffled (and even offended) when I had to pull them aside to correct their behavior. Their resentment would grow and their hostility would be expressed in subtle ways -- they would "forget" to inform their female counterparts of some vital information or misinform those same women regarding deadlines and project duties, for example.

Eventually, the women would find employment elsewhere, and I'd lose a valuable asset -- someone who could work as intently and as accurately I do, and someone who was a friend.

I guess ive never had trouble being a woman in the tech industry because I have a horrible crude sense of humor like the guys, and after they get used to the fact that im not going to be offended by their jokes, they just accept me as one of their own.

Fnord:

I get along well with nerd/geek/dork males.