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From: skyler@violet.berkeley.edu
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: women.wizards
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Date: 30 Jul 88 07:58:58 GMT
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The same friend also writes:

An odd thing for me, though, is not understanding the
gender mix that some people encounter.  Everywhere that I have worked, there
was a high proportion of women in the technical staff -- or at least it seemed
so to me -- if not in technical management.  And of course the first wizards
in the U.S. were women -- the Eniac was basically operated by Navy women in
the pictures I've seen.  That is where Grace Hopper and Betty Holberton got
their starts, and I have had the pleasure of working with other women who
started in the early days of Univac.

In my life as a consultant, about a year ago I did a study in an organization
where *all* project leaders with line responsibilities were women.  The one
exception was the Data Base Administrator, who was a male peer of the project
leaders.  The manager was a man and he was grooming his two most senior project
leaders to be his backups and replacements.  (Whether that happens will depend
more on the attitude of the management line above him, I expect.)

I'm inclined to think that the usual wizard profile is still pretty masculine,
of course.  

By the way, it was Grace Hopper who first pointed out to me that computing at
home was a nifty activity for women with newborns and infants.  This was back
before PCs, but she pointed out that groups of women had banded together in
the Boston area to do part-time programming work in order to be at home too.
I have heard of other groups from time to time.  My impression, again, as
for data processing's flexibility generally, is that opportunities for 
work-at-home are *greater* in the computer field
though not so prevalent as to be considered a dominant form of work.  Flex
time also seems to be more common.  My wife (with whom there are technophobe
issues around the household, though she does a lot better over time) is a
data-processing manager in an insurance company, and they have actually paid
to put terminals in the homes of some people who wanted to work part time
from home.  These are always very special arrangements, and they don't always
work out.  Also, I think most of them are justified as being temporary and
with a maximum agreed duration, anyhow.  The treatment of word processing and
data entry as piecework is inevitable, I think, since there is no usual 
on-site supervision for verification of work hours and performance.  If you
were paying someone to type your thesis out of your sight, would you prefer
to pay by the page or by the hour?  

The opportunity for part-time work in data processing also seems to be very
high.  Most of the examples that I hear about are of women who want more
time with family and infants.  Also, job sharing between two women each
wanting part-time work is seen.  I think the male counterpart of this is the
freelance consultant, but the motivation does not seem to be about home life
so much.  I think we'd see more variations if the earning power of the
adults in the same household were closer (as in my case) or the wife has
the better salary.  It still strikes me that the part-time and work-at-home
arrangements that I hear about are essentially economic compromises in terms
of the marginal income of the household.

I'm not real pleased about these observations.  It seems to be how we are
operating, though.

Back to wizards for a moment.  The association of compulsive behavior and
wizardry seems to be generally accepted.  Although there is a mystique 
associated with the type, I should point out that the wizard/hacker behavior
type is viewed as fairly deviant and not rewarded above the techie ladder
any better than women.  I've seen reformed wizards at management levels, but
not too many practising ones!  Since the trend is to not depend on wizards and
hackers in professional settings, it's probably no loss that women have
been excluded from that vanishing tribe!  (Well, I don't mean that, of course.
I object to the institutionalized exclusion, but just want to point out that
wizards aren't universally esteemed and organizations prefer not to depend on
them for critical matters.)

Well, it's hot and I don't want to talk about this any more today.  (I think
I'm feeling overly pessimistic about the possibilities of much more progress
toward social equality for a few years.  The racist stuff from women about
denial of ADC, etc., is really bothersome.  I agree that we have a problem 
when, because of a combination of practices and policies, we are vulnerable
to unliteral acts -- e.g., pregnancies -- by strangers (I guess I can include
drunk driving and not wearing motorcycle helmets or seat belts too).  I don't
have an answer to that, either, except to observe that government is no
substitute for community -- but it is the best you get when community is not
in the cards.  Maybe I need to state this better.  I think there is a rebellion
against the careless or mistaken acts of others creating obligations for 
*us* (whoever we are) without our participation or concent.  (The war
against second-hand tobacco smoke and DWI-ers strikes me as part of that, 
along with the unhappiness with people who plop nuclear power plants onto
the landscape and otherwise behave rather unilaterally in exposing us to
technological risks.)  As a society, we have a real problem reconciling the
obligations of society (e.g., *us*) to take care of each other with the
autonomy that is conceded with regard to the creation, rearing, and 
education of new citizens.  So I haven't stated it any better, after all, and
I've lost track of the nesting of parentheses anyhow.  ))))...)))) should do it.