A few interesting things have come out on the women in SharePoint / women in tech / women in leadership subject in the past month, and I wanted to share them here:
Last Friday, the Harvard Business Review blog ran the post "How female leaders should handle double standards." "When people are focused on how they are coming across to others — managing their image — they divert their attention away from their larger leadership purpose, are less clear about their goals and less open to learning."
Pam Parker (Women in SharePoint Boston member) wrote a blog on "Real lessons we should be learning from the guys." "Women hold only 25% of the jobs in IT and that rate has been falling since the 1980s. But because of the diverse skillsets needed for SharePoint and the importance of providing collaboration driven solutions, there are a variety of career opportunities for women and we have a wonderful opportunity to develop an increasingly strong female contingency."
The Boston Globe observed "Women Remain Outsiders in Video Game Industry" - "The small pool of women candidates has been a problem for other technology sectors, which in turn has spurred efforts by industry, higher education, and even the Girl Scouts to encourage girls and women to enter so-called STEM fields: science, technology, engineering, and math. Some chief executives at video game companies acknowledge they need more women in the industry, since nearly half the customers are female, and women over 18 are the fastest growing demographic."
"Objectify a Male Tech Writer Day" was launched and then canceled by Leigh Alexander. The goal of the day had been to "highlight by example what a gendered compliment looks like, and to get people talking in a funny and lighthearted way about how these kinds of comments distract from meaningful dialogues and make writers online feel like their point of view is only as relevant as how attractive they are."
Finally - a Boston chapter of Women In SharePoint recently formed; the first meeting will be held tomorrow, Tuesday 2/12/13, at MeadHall in Cambridge at 6 pm. I'll be warming up the meeting with some thoughts on being a woman in the SharePoint community. Last Spring I participated in Softartisans' "Stories from the WIT Trenches" (a GREAT series to read), and since then I have been paying close attention to the local WIT climate. Let me just say, this will be a reality-based get-together, which will NOT include Jazzercise during the breaks. To the women in the regional SharePoint community, I hope to see you there!
