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This post is not actually about a "booth babe problem", it's making the point that they are a red herring in discussions about women and technology. "It’s abou
by timf 16y ago
This post is not actually about a "booth babe problem", it's making the point that they are a red herring in discussions about women and technology.
"It’s about the reaction of men to a technically competent woman, no matter what she’s wearing. It’s the surprise and the shock in their expression and voice. It’s about the assumption that no woman is technically competent – at a trade show or on a conference call. That’s at the heart of this debate and others like it, and whether booth babes are present or not is unlikely to have an impact on those assumptions."
- tomjen3 16y agoThe reason one has that reaction to a woman is the same reason a person look strangely at a rock he has fallen over when he realize it is a diamond: Because it happens fucking far too seldom.
- timf 16y agoI interact with women in technology enough for it to not be surprising. At conferences and meetings when people act strangely meeting my technical and capable female colleagues, it suggests to me that the person is inexperienced rather than making me sad for my colleagues. It suggests the same to my colleagues as well.
- Jun8 16y agoReally!? Then, you definitely have not been around (or maybe from outside the US where mileage may vary). Just go to any big tech company campus, e.g. Google, Apple, Microsoft, sit on a bench and observe. My guess is that 10-15% of any large company's tech-heavy departments (labs, etc.) are women. Now, that is more probable than a diamond falling on your head.
- Tichy 16y agoIn normal life I don't hang around on the campus of Google or Microsoft a lot. Of course people you meet there are likely to be more tech-savvy than the average population. If you go to a diamond mine, odds of stumbling across a diamond are probably also slightly increased.
- Jun8 16y agoHmm, I thought we were talking about technical conferences, not "normal life".
- Tichy 16y agoSure, but people going there come from normal life, which might have shaped their expectations. Anyway, I am not really interested in the subject, so I shouldn't have commented. Edit: I am confused what the discussion is even about. Apparently those men were surprised. What is the point then of arguing that they should not have been surprised? Doesn't the fact that they were surprised kind of imply that they don't meet many tech-savvy women on average? What is there to discuss?
- kiujhygtfhyj 16y agoIt's not just women. You are just as shocked when the good looking jock type at the front of the booth with the expensive haircut knows anything about the product other than the price and his commission. It's all a pattern recognition excercise. At an American or Japanese company, attractive young women on the stand are statistically likely to be at worst hired booth babes and at best someone from marketing. In a european company they are likely to have PhDs in engineering. Similarly the guys in the fancy suits with the $100 haircuts are going to be sales. What you are looking for is the scruffy guy at the back climbing behind the PCs checking the cables. If he is in a black T-shirt with a roll of duct tape he works for the show organizers. If he is in a company T-shirt with glasses he is the one techy they sent along.