The girl in the boy's club
I'm not really sure what happened. As most of you know, all my friends in high school and even pretty much all through college were either females or a few gay males. Suffice it to say the straight male culture was something of a mystery to me, and I always wondered why I never seemed to break into that social arena.
This year, however, I find myself completely flipped. First of all, when I was hired at my current place of employment, I was one of 3 females (of 15 employees), and the culture definitely felt (and still feels) like a boy's club. Then last summer If joined a cycling club, which is probably 80% male, maybe 75%; certainly as you move up in speed the females get thinner and thinner. I often find myself with a group of all males. And of course I've also joined a Flash group, and I've only ever met men from this group. Last night they were talking about how some girl who used be in the group said it was a 'boy's club'.
So you'd think I'd be kind of uncomfortable in these groups, but i never have been...seems weird. I dunno, I would never consider myself some sort of female blazer of paths or whatever; I don't feel like the things I do are particularly masculine. I guess the only reason cycling would be is that it can quickly get very competitive (again, not necessarily a masculine thing, certainly I have always been competitive). And throughout the history of computer time, generally it seems that men are the nerds and gravitate towards things like computer science (again, because of our educational system emphasizing science to men, social-ital norms etc). I dunno, it's interesting. Still, I'd say 99% of programmers are men. Which I'm not really a programmer, but it's an interesting thing, to always be the token female. It's kind of nice in a way, especially since I'm often the youngest person as well, so everyone always has this sort of protective feeling towards me a bit. Of course, then I fly by them on a hill and suddenly the feeling dissipates a bit, but you know. :) I like to be the under dog.
This year, however, I find myself completely flipped. First of all, when I was hired at my current place of employment, I was one of 3 females (of 15 employees), and the culture definitely felt (and still feels) like a boy's club. Then last summer If joined a cycling club, which is probably 80% male, maybe 75%; certainly as you move up in speed the females get thinner and thinner. I often find myself with a group of all males. And of course I've also joined a Flash group, and I've only ever met men from this group. Last night they were talking about how some girl who used be in the group said it was a 'boy's club'.
So you'd think I'd be kind of uncomfortable in these groups, but i never have been...seems weird. I dunno, I would never consider myself some sort of female blazer of paths or whatever; I don't feel like the things I do are particularly masculine. I guess the only reason cycling would be is that it can quickly get very competitive (again, not necessarily a masculine thing, certainly I have always been competitive). And throughout the history of computer time, generally it seems that men are the nerds and gravitate towards things like computer science (again, because of our educational system emphasizing science to men, social-ital norms etc). I dunno, it's interesting. Still, I'd say 99% of programmers are men. Which I'm not really a programmer, but it's an interesting thing, to always be the token female. It's kind of nice in a way, especially since I'm often the youngest person as well, so everyone always has this sort of protective feeling towards me a bit. Of course, then I fly by them on a hill and suddenly the feeling dissipates a bit, but you know. :) I like to be the under dog.