Ellen Messmer, on Women in IT: Success and Struggle:
There’s troubling evidence that some high-tech firms are pushing highly educated female workers to the brink of burn-out in a business atmosphere that expects round-the-clock hours, is brutally dismissive of family life and marginalizes them in a sea of highly educated men.
That is likely the case in any field where men traditionally dominate, and is not limited purely to those in technical fields.
Researchers found a third of the women interviewed had decided to delay having children in order to achieve their career goals, while 18% of men indicated the same. And for the sake of their jobs, 9% of the surveyed women decided to forego children completely, compared with 3.5% of men.
Again, that same statistical trend will show up in other fields where women make up a minority.
One analyst who has watched the world of high-tech and executive management for a long time say women professionals do tend to bring a certain “sensibility,” especially in communications skills often defined as “female traits” that men should be more inclined to emulate, not disparage.
Women often have more of a willingness to admit when they’re wrong.