By Tom Espiner, 24 September 2007 08:32
NEWS
The inventor of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has called for an end to the "stupid" male geek culture that disregards the work of capable female engineers, and puts others off entering the profession.
Berners-Lee said a culture that avoided alienating women would attract more female programmers, which could lead to greater harmony of systems design. "If there were more women involved we could move towards interoperability. We have to change at every level," he said.
According to Berners-Lee, women can be put off a career in technology both by "stupid" behaviour by some male "geeks", and by the reactions of other women.
He said: "It's a complex problem - we find bias against women by women. There are bits of male geek culture and engineer culture that are stupid. They should realise that they could be alienating people who are smarter and better engineers."
Engineering research facilities that interview candidates based only on how many papers they have had published also risk adding to the problem, according to Berners-Lee, because of an apparent in-built bias against women.
One academic went through a sex change, submitted the same papers under both identities, and found that papers were accepted from a man but were rejected when they came from a woman, said the web inventor. This bias is unaccountable but adds to institutional bias, he said.
Tom Espiner writes for ZDNet UK
Comments
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1. anonymous
What is "geek" culture? Does it really exist in the workplace?
90% of engineers I have worked with are normal, well adjusted individuals who have families and / or enjoy a normal social life outside of work.
I think some "non-technical" people in the IT industry overplay the "geek" stereotypes (such as poor communicators and bad personal hygene etc) to make them feel better about themselves or justify they're non-technical roles.
But is this stereotype really true?
Are all IT departments like those in the TV show "IT crowd"? All male workers with dubious hair styles being dominated by female managers with no understanding of IT?
2. MusicFan
Perhaps if I.T professionals were not touted as "techies" or "geeks" by media (including silicon) then perhaps the image of I.T would not be so tarnished. Just because a person is good with computers doesnt mean they must also have a personal hygiene problem and wear thick glasses! The next generation of kids are growing up with PC skills inherently and will probably be better with computers than most "techies" by the age of 10! Maybe the age of the company "techie" is numbered. Perhaps we should be more focused on this issue.
3. Simon Allen
Comments from 'anon' are certainly valid. The idea that IT technicians have a culture is silly. They may have some things in common but that is the same for any group, irrespective of their line of work.
For example, many priests and vicars that I have met are unsociable, supercilious and have difficulty communicating with people in every day life. They need to work on their Vicar Culture.