Big Omaha: Adriana Gascoigne
BIG OMAHA
This is a completely awesome event! Boss was right, you can get the information online, but nothing compares to actually being there. How many times can we heckle Fried for hating words, right? How many profane ways can Vaynerchuk emphasize his point? The discussions and the crowd interactions during the speeches are priceless. But there is one dim spot on a presentation that I really want to see succeed. Let me explain how Adriana Gascoigne totally blows it.
WOMEN IN TECH
The only disappointment (besides conference breakfast food) is the Women in Tech presentation. It’s not one thing, but several bad ones that comprised this failure. I, and several others I know, are the perfect male candidates to hear this speech. We agree with the premise that there are too few women in technical careers in general, and we’re ready and willing to join the cause. Just give us the talking points and some facts, and we’ll champion your cause. Well, while I’m waiting for some fresh stats, or a revelation about societal change since the 1990s, I can at least offer some constructive criticism.
RED DRESS FAIL
Okay, the red dress is distracting. So are the knee-high boots. Despite whatever ironic symbolism she’s attempting (Oh god, I hope she’s trying to be ironic), I’m not taking her as seriously as if she wasn’t wearing a clubbing outfit. And the black-rimmed glasses seem almost condescending like she’s pandering to geeks. Spearheading a social cause like this, you can’t afford to be ironic. Let the marketers figure-out how to wrap the message. Right now, just give us the argument & supporting stats without the silhouette.
SLIDESHOW FAIL
Oh. My. God. Is she reading the slides?! Who does that?? (Huge no-no). Also, where’s the graphs?? You’ve got rows of black and white statistics with no graphical representation? Seriously, the only visual we’re left with is your dress? We work with graphic designers because they make our business look good. You should, too.
MORE WOMEN IN TECH
Despite the best intentions and goodwill in the room, this is simply boring. Ms. Gascoigne asserts that because there is less than 50% ratio of women to men in technology-related feilds, we therefore need more women in these fields. We are not hearing any new reasoning supporting why we need women in tech, other than it seems that there is some social ideal that requires 50/50 split of all professions.
I question the motive for even suggesting that there’s a problem with the imbalance. To borrow Lukenbill’s extreme analogy, just because there are disproportionately few female serial killers, does this mean we need more of them?
DEFINE “TECH”
The conversation’s going to be too broad unless we focus on certain industries. Remember when we were younger and every girl in the class wanted to go be a marine biologist? Well, what happened to them? How come every single dolphin in the world doesn’t have it’s own personal observer by now? Then ER came one and everyone wanted to work with doctors. Are they all rad techs, vet techs, nurses and doctors? If so, how is that not technological? Because they’re not making the CAT scan machines?
We need to differentiate what we mean by technician as an end career that uses equipment in a field, like healthcare. And technologist as the person that invents the equipment.
Do we want women going up the scale from techs to engineers and scientists? Or just a general increase in the overall spectrum?
WHY?
Ms. Gascoigne needs to better articulate why we need more women in tech besides offering pat phrases like: “they’re right brained.” Really? I’m left handed, therefore at least partially right brained, so I am now a more desirable candidate? What is are the qualities and behaviors of right-brain-ed-ness that we now require in the tech fields that was missing before?
She noticeably side-steps the whole of psychological differences, by dismissing the first question right from the start. Well, if there are no differences in the way we think, then she has no more right/left brain argument! Failing to address that reality does no good for anyone.
I suspect that there are other sociological reasons that there are fewer women than men in “tech.”
- Resource acquisition
- The elephant in the room: Motherhood
- New roles for everyone in the post-Internet society
RESOURCE ACQUISITION
Let’s take a step back and look at the overall picture. We work in the technical field of online publishing. It’s half Information Technology (IT) and half Marketing. IT recently has been a huge growth sector for the American Economy. And Advertising isn’t going anywhere, either. Are women getting their fair share of the marketing & IT budgets that sustain this field?
MOTHERHOOD
The one thing that needs to be said is that you don’t have a choice when you have a baby. Someone has to provide care for the child at least early on. You can have a family member care for the baby, or you can pay someone else to provide that care. Paying for child care is ridiculously expensive. And if you don’t have two full-time incomes, chances are you’re not going to be able to afford it. So someone has to watch the baby. If that someone is the mother, then they need a job with more flexibility in hours.
There is a kind of false dichotomy that you have to choose family or work. For as many new mothers that choose to leave the workplace, there are just as many that stay. If anything, technology has helped many more mothers stay connected to their careers while working remotely. And we all know at least one stay-at-home mom who maybe spends a bit too much time on the social networks. You don’t have to choose family or work. But you do have to choose how to work around the family. And the Internet can it more convenient to do so.
NEW SOCIAL ROLES
Today in traditional homes with two biological parents, the father is expected to contribute more to the raising of the child. This is a huge 180 from fifty years ago. Our fathers were raised by their mothers, and expected their wives,k our mothers, to raise us. The message throughout the 70s and 80s to be better dads, so the little extra housework they may have done was like being a fish out of water. As mothers went to work in the 70s, we had latchkey kids in the 80s as both parents held jobs. Since the financial burden was being shared, so too was the housework & and child-rearing. The old stereotypes of Man Works, Woman Stays at Home with the Kids was crumbling.
Now, I can’t find a dad who doesn’t want to be more active in their child’s life. For the parents that can, many choose to work form home, especially in the first few years of their child’s life. The Internet has enabled so many communication tools, that we’re not working at work so much as we’re networking at work via social sites. And we’re working more at other places. Sometimes we’re at home trying to be better parents.
So as women are finally getting the benefit of a more cooperative father, and maybe he even has a flexible job so that he can stay home and help raise the kids, then what is the woman’s new role? I don’t have an answer for that, but whatever it is, everyone has get on board with it.
The current social goal seems to still be Dad works, Mom stays at home. The Trophy Wife or a Kept Woman role is not going away, but something to aspire to. Great, have all our women aspire to codependence on wealthy men. Martha Stewart is the ultimate housewife with an army of servants and a bank account to match. Her’s is a boring example filled with crafts and platitudes. If Martha Stewart were “in tech” (whatever that means) would we be having this conversation?
PROVERBIAL HIGH SCHOOL COUNSELOR
Other proposed answers: cliche scapegoats of institutional discrimination, educational system incompetence, and the glass ceiling. This presentation also casts suspicion on the proverbial high school’s councilor’s outdated perception of just exactly what a technology career entails. We know education needs reform and maybe the social equity factor can be another prod to get it going.
My high school counselor said that I should be a construction worker, or a mathematician based on the results of some like/don’t-like survey. (Was “architect” not in the system?) I can appreciate the lack of academic knowledge about current industry practices, as well as the outdated tools that they have at their disposal. Maybe the new Wolfram Alpha can suggest better career paths?
The educational issue turned-out to be a recurring theme at Big Omaha. It was made clear that college does not now, and most likely will not prepare you for the work you will need to do with the Internet. The panel was asked later that afternoon what they would do if they were a college president. Gary Vernaychek’s emphatic reply resonated over the stunned audience. “Fucking close the place down. I mean it.” He continued: “College is broken. It’s bullshit. College is bullshit system and it’s going down. Re-tweet that.”
Fried followed-up with: bring back the apprentice system. And yet another solution by Micah, was to have more un-classes, in reference to the Philadelphia project, where the students get together and pay a professor to teach them what they want to know. Having at least one informal pupil, I whole-heartedly agree. Gascoigne proposed programs that match young ladies with successful women already in the field. However, the disposition of these successful women was like, “I’m too busy.” Surprising, no?
I want to take one moment to dispel the myth of cattiness in the workplace. If you are a catty bitch (and who isn’t? I’ve been guilty of it), then you won’t relate as well, and you will cause needless inter-team strife. I know more guys who cause problems with their personalities than women. (Now is that just because there aren’t as many women in this field, though?) It’s the law of averages. Do not for one second let your own ego flavor the Kool-Aid you drink. No one is that crucial that they can’t be replaced with a friendlier person for the team. Fired emphasized that point earlier, too.
We barely know what our own roles are in this post-Internet society. Wired or wire-less, we’re connected like never before. So how do we define what roles women play in this society? If they are not at the table, then they won’t have much of a voice. I think women need to have a larger presence in this arena, and however bad the presentation, the Girls in Tech is a start.