I Got Unfair Advantages in the '80s Entering High Tech as a Woman

Back in the '70's and '80s and '90s - women had it tough in tech. But, not as tough as now. Women in tech now, have it worse than I did back then.

In high school in the '70s, Catholic school, but I lucked out. My teacher in chemistry and physics was an amazing man, Mr. Lonnegan. He found it amusing when I whipped the guys on tests and experiments. I had male support. It made me bold.

Guidance counselor advised against Georgia Tech college choice. No surprise :( I chose Tech.

Then I got lucky again. had to work my way to pay for college - went into Co-op program. Found an advisor who placed me at Procter and Gamble with my roommate, figuring we could help each other out. I was so lucky. Damn that roommate and I stuck together, we would study late into the night - she was smarter than me and I did better than I would have studying alone.

Not saying P&G experience was perfect, but it surely hardened me, working in a union factory. Again, weirdly lucky with the women on manufacturing floor supporting me and my projects. When supervisor, Gordy, went out on vacation, we had the highest production rate in history, as I was allowed to be their supervisor in his absence and I think the women were tired of Gordy and thought it was fun to make me a hero.

Graduating Georgia Tech. I had 10 job offers. Before you think it was because I was a woman, yah, no, high honors, Co-op degree with great references. I really wanted the Alcoa job, but ex-husband wanted a PhD at North Carolina State. So I chose IBM in Raleigh.

Lucky again. Then again, back in my day, women in tech had it luckier than women now.

Tim Cook, yep that Tim Cook, was my office mate.

IBM in the early '80s treated women engineers well. I think they still do. When it came to training opps, my chain smoking anti-women manager had no choice but to give them to me. I learned CADAM, GPSS, other stuff I forget now - know this means nothing now, but at that time it was grand.

Yep, career went very well. Quit IBM 3 times, for startups, So lucky, so very lucky. In the late '90s being female in high tech was an advantage, not a disadvantage.

Long story short, I mentor young women entering tech now, I interact with men in tech on a regular basis nowadays and with exceptions, it is utterly depressing. Women are not welcomed. They are doubted, treated with disrespect.

Why though? Why? I would think by now we would be moving forward, not backward.

I had a lot of unfair advantages, but were they? Just a high school teacher who told me I was good at engineering. Just good treatment by employers. It is not too much to ask that young women in tech get this too.

I don't think they are getting the advantages I had way back then.

What to Do if Sexually Harrassed at Work

Do not go to HR. They are responsible for protecting the company, not you.

If you are physically attacked at work or an event, call law enforcement. Physical abuse is a crime, punishable by law. Dial 911.

If it's subtle innuendo, total crap-shoot. Unfortunately, you as a victim are going to need to be smarter. You go to HR - you will likely be labelled as a trouble-maker, and it's going to impact your career negatively.

So, what do you do? Debug the problem. Find out, why is the person doing this. Attempt to work with the perpetrator to remove misunderstandings.

Assuming the perpetrator of the abuse was truly intentionally malicious - ugh. So, step one, find someone in management who you trust, and present the problem to them. It is quite likely they can solve your problem.

If you have no such trusted person in management, consider leaving your position. It's easier to find a job when you still have one.

Depressing, unfair to you as a victim, yep! But it is what it is.