Article:		I Don't Like Articles about Women in Technology
Subject:		Perspective?
Date:		2007-09-12 19:33:06
From:		AmyHoy
Shelley, Am I condescending? Or are you condescending to me? Let me say, gently, that neither you, nor anyone else who reads this article, has any idea what kind of difficulties I've faced in my life. (You probably want to ask, do I then claim to know what every reader has faced in his or her life? No, but I'm not talking about — or to — a singular person, either.) But I will say that my success isn't because I don't have, or haven't had, problems, stumbling blocks, or enemies. I'm successful because when I come up against a problem, I either fight it, or shrug it off and route around it. The vast majority of people I know who are truly successful have the same approach to life. I have a lot of anti-hero models for this in my life, as well, who have demonstrated to me the power of negative thinking and painting oneself as the victim. There have been extraordinary men and women all throughout history who we know of because they flouted their traditional roles, dictated to them by societies much less forgiving than ours, and made it work. Many of them were not especially privileged. Many of them were uneducated, of the wrong race, or even born into slavery, or, as you may guess, female. I'm not comparing myself to them, certainly, but I wonder what excuse we have to complain when people like Frederick Douglass have walked the earth. I respect what you are trying to do, but I still think you're going about it the wrong way.

Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.

• Perspective?
  2007-09-13 09:38:30  dikelmm [Reply | View]
  
  
  Does anyone remember what happened to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. years after slavery was illegal and Frederick Douglass walked the earth? I would be interested in the perspective of a person with little knowledge of social history after 20 or 30 more years of living and learning something beyond IT.

• Perspective?
  2007-09-12 20:10:58  Shelley Powers | [Reply | View]
  
  
  In what way are women who fight for a better way of life for future generations being victims?
  
  By this standard, then, were the blacks who walked the streets for civil rights victims and not worthy of your regard?
  
  You measure success by your work and what you have obtained. What about success for all women? Or is it each woman is on their own, and may the best one win?
  
  I don't know all the writers for this series, nor do I know what they'll all write. But I can guarantee, there won't be one who will portray themselves as a 'victim'.
  
  What I will say, though, is that there will be more than a few who sacrifice time and that 'success' you seem to value just so others have opportunities.
  
  You mention Frederick Douglas. Frederick Douglas devoted his life so that others would have the opportunities denied him. By your reckoning, he fought for 'victims', and therefore can't be deemed a 'success'.
  
  You think I'm going about this the wrong way? Why? Because I don't spend all my time fighting for my own success? According to your measure of success, then yes, I shouldn't have even spent time writing this article. I should have, instead, sought work that paid me, or work that contributed to my fame, or contributed to my own self interests.
  
  As for flouting traditional roles, we who write to this series have one and only thing in common: we're all women in technology. There isn't one of us who hasn't, and continues, to flout traditional roles.