The May 14 edition of the Financial Times carries a "Digital Business" special report. The section deals with challenges facing the future of computer dorkdom corporate IT departments. Chief among them, the FT asked in its front-page story, "What is it about girls and IT?"
"They are heavy users of technology yet avoid studying IT," the subhead explained, noting that "female skills" in IT are "in great demand." Oddly enough, the editors at FT may have found one solution: transsexual IT staffers.
Flipping to the back page of the FT's Digital Business special section, readers could find the tale of one Kate Craig-Wood (pictured above at right), whom reporter Peter Whitehead described as "the attractive, intelligent and articlulate 31-year-old managing director of a successful technology business... a woman whose extraordinary journey provides a unique insight into the role that gender plays in the technology workplace."
Did I mention Craig-Wood was male for the first three decades of her life?:
Women say they are put off working in IT because they often feel left out in what tends to be an overwhelmingly male environment. One woman who understands this better than anyone is Kate Craig-Wood. Because until two years ago Kate was Robert.
In her first 29 years - "I was born with a female brain and a male body" - she played the role of son, brother, husband and businessman. Since her gender transition was completed in 2006, she has been daughter, sister, girlfriend and businesswoman.
Whitehead noted that Craig-Wood "is also concerned about the negative perception of IT as being 'geeky' and not a sexy career path."
I don't know about you, but it sure is less sexy to me after reading this story.
Photo credit: Daniel Jones for the Financial Times.
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
The upper-body strength
May 14, 2008 - 13:22 ET by KillgraveThe upper-body strength comes in handy for lifting those heavy servers and monitors.
Throw on a wig and BAM, we're in business.
Uh huh
May 14, 2008 - 13:27 ET by TheDeuceYeah, cause us IT guys are so known for our upper-body strength and all, right?
Wonder how chick-boy's wife felt? Hopefully, enjoying lots of alimony....but, hopefully there's no child support involved. Know what I mean?
Damn...
May 14, 2008 - 13:24 ET by TheDeuceSo many jokes here...it's overwhelming...can't take it...
Ok, look, I just have to say this, but I find it really creepy to call surgically-altered dudes 'she'. It's just...ugh!!!
This is the same thing my
May 14, 2008 - 13:35 ET by CortillaenThis is the same thing my commander mentioned. Calling someone who is biologically male a female and using the associated pronouns is simply dishonest. Wanting to be a woman, dressing like a woman, and acting like a woman (odd how there's no "stereotyping!" outrage here) does not, in fact, make a man into a woman. Even with surgical alteration, DNA doesn't lie.
www.rhjunior.com Great comics with a hefty dose of Christian and anti-nutjob goodness.
"With your mind as high as Mt. Fuji you can see all things clearly. And you can see all the forces that shape events; not just the things near to you." -Miyamoto Musashi
Lib women SHOULD be offended
May 14, 2008 - 13:38 ET by TheDeuceLib women SHOULD be offended by all the story's implication.
I don't know about that.
May 14, 2008 - 14:13 ET by KillgraveI don't know about that. Most females that I've come across have an interesting view of the world. Somehow, if one "feels" something about something, that makes it "real".
Most men aren't wired that way. I think it's due to us being built to handle immediate, dangerous situations that don't leave much room for subjectivity. A rock that is about to hit your head is nothing but a rock that is about to hit your head. We don't have time to "wish" and "feel" that it be something else other than a rock.
Of course, all lib "men" turn off this mechanism in order to fit in the soft, warm collective.
Isn't the implication that
May 14, 2008 - 20:13 ET by TheDeuceIsn't the implication that men who have surgery and hormone injections can replace women and become the 'female' presence lacking in IT organizations?
Cool, we've outsourced chicks now. We can use Nancy-boys to do our IT, leaving wives in their rightful place...the kitchen.
...
Oh, hey, honey...whatcha doin?
You wanna see what I'm doing on the computer at this time of night? No, no...don't read Newsbusters. Nothing new today really...same old, same old. Er...um...here, look at the porn I was checking out. There it is, in the IE history. See? Told you....nothing but porn.
<Whew, that was close...>
Implants??? I wonder when
May 14, 2008 - 13:30 ET by bassndudeImplants??? I wonder when Playboy is going to capitolize on this trend. After all, a rag transgendered nudes is bound to sell to a narrow range of the populus, and I hear even Playboy is losing sales now.
Save a SeAL, club a liberal!!
the IT issue "women of
May 14, 2008 - 15:28 ET by TruthMongerthe IT issue
"women of helpdesk"
I teach some college IT
I've got 3 girls out of 60 students
they are quite popular:)
Your comment...
May 15, 2008 - 08:23 ET by TheDeuce...reminds me of the only memorable segment of Mad TV...the 'Lowered Expectations' dating service spots.
I'm sure your students are lovely girls, but in IT around these parts, the "ladies of helpdesk" ain't exactly leet gamer vixens bringing tech support and administrative assistant pwnage by day to support their night jobs as roller derby's Dark Divas / chicks-only goth-trance metal band / cosplay modeling agency!!!
If you're into that sort of thing...not that I am or not...or that there's anything against it if you are or not, mind you.
Female skills?
June 3, 2008 - 14:32 ET by TheDeuceUm...shouldn't REAL women be offended at the notion that dudes who slap on some fake boobs and get their junk cut off are viable infusions of 'female' skills into IT?
Maybe, that's the closest thing to a 'woman' these geeks will ever get, as the old saying goes.
"I was born with a female
May 14, 2008 - 13:41 ET by Cortillaen"I was born with a female brain and a male body" Augh! Stop it already! I'm sick of constantly hearing "But I was born..." as a justification for choices someone makes. No, you were not "born with a female brain". It doesn't work that way. You were born with a male brain, just like your body. At some point, you decided you didn't want to be a male anymore, so you had a surgeon mutilate your body into an approximation of a female's. Stop being a wimp and own up to your actions. </rant>
www.rhjunior.com Great comics with a hefty dose of Christian and anti-nutjob goodness.
"With your mind as high as Mt. Fuji you can see all things clearly. And you can see all the forces that shape events; not just the things near to you." -Miyamoto Musashi
i high five and concur with
May 14, 2008 - 15:31 ET by TruthMongeri high five and concur with you on this one cort!
but that said, I've always been a lesbian trapped in a man's body
Invincible Ignorance
May 15, 2008 - 08:44 ET by Zoe BrainNo, you were not "born with a female brain". It doesn't work that way. You were born with a male brain, just like your body.
Actually....
Zhou J.-N, Hofman M.A, Gooren L.J, Swaab D.F (1997)
A Sex Difference in the Human Brain and its Relation to Transsexuality. (PDF at http://www.harrybenj...)
Kruijver F.P.M, Zhou J.-N, Pool C.W., Swaab D.F. (2000)
Male-to-Female Transsexuals Have Female Neuron Numbers in a Limbic Nucleus (PDF at http://www.harrybenj...)
Male
and Female brains differ, both on the coarse scale (BSTc layer of the
hypothalamus) and fine scale (number of neurons - brain cells - in each
structure). Autopsies on transsexual women, that is, women with mostly
male bodies, have shown they have female pattern brains in this respect.
Note that gay men have male pattern brains though in this respect.
I met Kate in Chonburi, Thailand, when I had my op. Her body was more masculine than feminine, so it was called Sex Reassignment Surgery. Mine was more feminine than masculine, so mine was called Genital Reconstruction Surgery. You see, there's something called "Intersex", meaning a body neither wholly male nor wholly female. Transsexuals have Intersex of the brain, and often are Intersexed in body too to some degree.
Kate's far more classically feminine in personality than I am. I'm way too geeky, rather like my neice.
Transsexual and often Intersexed people usually have atypical neurology and methods of thought. They can access the linear/logical pattern that is typically male, and the parallel/communicative pattern that is typically female. This is particularly useful in two areas: IT and the Military. Just go to Prof Lynn Conway's gallery of TS women at http://ai.eecs.umich... and see just how many are IT professionals.
I'll leave you with one additional quote, from ArzteZeitung in 2007:
Yes, it's easily visible on MRI scans, it's not some subtle thing that may or may not exist.
So the next time you make bald statements that denigrate others, at least do a few minutes reading on the subject first, OK? Or you'll end up looking, well, as you do now.
Signed:
Zoe E Brain BSc MInfoTech(Distinction) and doing a PhD in CompSci at the Australian National University. Also Intersexed, worse luck. I don't recommend it, but as it's something you're born as, not something you choose, you just have to play the best hand you can with the cards you're dealt. It would be a lot easier without the excusably ill-informed and inexcusably overtly malicious nature of some of the comments here.
What I don't get
May 15, 2008 - 08:57 ET by sarcasmoIs why some people care so much about this issue, while (as you show) being determined to know so-little about the nature of genetics and biology. The idea that people would deliberately put themselves through the physical and emotional trauma these people choose for political reasons is, to me, silly. It must really suck when folks try to mask their ignorance with cruelty, especially when they're unlikely to admit to either condition.
JMR
The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.
Hey Zoe, the only way your
May 15, 2008 - 08:58 ET by bassndudeHey Zoe, the only way your going to prove the transexual brain is the opposit of the body they reside in, is to take it out and weigh it. Anything else is supposition and excuse. The only way that what you say would have any seed of truth, would be if the subject was born a hermaphrodite. Then you might have something.
Save a SeAL, club a liberal!!
Because scales are the only tool available
May 15, 2008 - 09:04 ET by sarcasmoTo measure what goes on inside the brain. Instruments like EEGs, etc. simply don't exist, and Zoe's links probably contain long words only used by elitist scientific types, so there's no need to read or think about them. Ah, the 'scientific' view...
JMR
The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.
For the Hard of Thinking
May 16, 2008 - 00:29 ET by Zoe BrainHey Zoe, the only way your going to prove the transexual brain is the
opposit (sic) of the body they reside in, is to take it out and weigh it.
Anything else is supposition and excuse.
Taking you literally...that wouldn't be enough, as the weights vary. Some men have lighter brains than some women.
What you would have to do is do an autopsy on every transsexual woman who died in a large area over, say, 6 months. You take out the brain, as you said, slice it up, and examine it to see if it more closely resembles a male or a female brain. There are differences between them. You then repeat the experiment, looking at other areas, until you can be pretty sure of your findings. There's a thing called statistical sampling, and it means you don't have to measure every single thing in a group to make some reliable conclusions about them all.
If you read the papers I gave links to, and the fact that you were able to read the original article and comment proves that you can read, even if you can't spell, then you will see that that is what they did in the Netherlands in 1997, and again in 2000.
I won't tax your intellect with talking about Functional MagnetoResonanceImagery which shows patterns of bloodflow and hence activity in different parts of the brain of living people. Let's keep it simple, and aim for understanding one step at a time.
The only way that what you say would have any seed of truth, would be if the subject was born a hermaphrodite
That is an obsolete term for someone who's Intersexed, yes. Well done! See, this concept is not so difficult, is it?
"I was born with a female
May 14, 2008 - 13:58 ET by Jack BauerBS - of course. In dimensions, the male brain is bigger and heavier than the female brain, so if the person had a "male body," it stands to reason the brain was also "male."
And given the size of the head in that photo, I'd say it was indisputable Kate came with the requisite brain for the male body at birth.
I was born with a female
May 15, 2008 - 18:54 ET by Clear thinkerI was born with a female brain and a male body" -
I wonder if this means he has like 400 pairs of wingtips in his closet?
"Abstain from McCain"
It's much easier now
May 14, 2008 - 14:03 ET by c5thenTo get contracts that are set asside for minority and disadvantaged businesses.
So, does Robert count toward the stats for males in IT or does Kate now count toward women in IT?
The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.
Yes US Law needs to define these people
May 14, 2008 - 14:21 ET by Daniel BakerThe world allows more every year, and it mostly effects marriage. Divorces will continue to go up as people are exposed to more pornography. Marriages will decrease. Children will become rare, and societies with children will take over from within
So if he is my co worker and i call him sir would I be fired
May 14, 2008 - 14:16 ET by Daniel BakerThe world allows more every year, and it mostly effects marriage. Divorces will continue to go up as people are exposed to more pornography. Marriages will decrease. Children will become rare, and societies with children will take over from within
Probably.
May 14, 2008 - 14:58 ET by fonzie2178They've got it set up so that everyone is given protection from discrimination (or in this case, like most, the TRUTH), except the working white male.
"It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face."
Probably Not, I'm afraid
May 16, 2008 - 00:08 ET by Zoe BrainIf she is your co-worker, and you called her "sir" you might well get away with it. It really depends on the jurisdiction. In some places, such harrassment would go not just un-noticed, but actually applauded. In others, you'd be immediately fired. Usually, you'd be given a light tap on the wrist, and told not to do it again - when anyone else can hear. That's based on the experience of another woman I know in IT who was given exactly that treatment, though at the passport office rather than at work.
A lot of gay men have your attitude. The ignorant ones think she's a crazy gay in denial, so crazy she mutilated herself. The rest think that she's straight, and worse, an icky girl.
From your comments, you're in the first category.
Hey, she's pretty cute
May 14, 2008 - 14:21 ET by JnobleI wouldn't mind meeting with....
wait, she's a WHAT?....
Ewwwwwww!!! Aahhhhhh!! I need a shower now!!!
:-)
Actually...
May 16, 2008 - 00:23 ET by Zoe BrainThey must have taken a lot of shots to give such an unflattering picture. She looks a lot better than that in 3D.
I hate her.
You don't have to worry, she doesn't keep her past exactly secret. It's a good way of sorting out the Cro-Magnons from the Nenderthals.
I would take that shower though, you might get more success in your love life if you do that more often, trust me. Fresh, pheremone-laced male sweat is, well, distracting to straight women. Stale BO isn't.
;-)
Not my experience
May 14, 2008 - 14:35 ET by KC MulvilleI work on a database team with five people. Three are women. Two are young mothers, and all three are attractive. I don't know where this reporter gets his information, but this isn't my experience. In my office, the women are doing just fine, thank you.
Besides the usual part that
May 14, 2008 - 14:53 ET by jdhawkBesides the usual part that the likes of the liberal FT is playing in destroying our social fabrik by attempting to paint every weird human as normal, as a practical matter women don't work in IT because it is too much work.
What do I mean by that? It requires long hours, weekends and holidays and constant study. I work in IT for one our biggest banks. There are few women in our IT division. Where are they most often found? In areas of IT where one doesn't have to work long hours, weekends, and holidays and where it doesn't take constant study. What few women there are are project analysts or managers or business analysts or managers. Few gravitate toward the hard core IT jobs of programming and administration.
I teach a class in advanced networking, so I see what is coming up at one our local colleges. It's the same story as above. Few are women and few are minorities (ie black or hispanic).
In regards to study, since 1995 I have certified in Microsoft technologies three times and I am studying to certify a fourth time for latest update of their software products. That is just one vendors' products. Employers generally don't pay for certification testing and only some pay for courses to update skill sets. Couple pulling money out of your own pocket to update your skills and the time, after work, to update those skills and the task tends to cull all but the most dedicated.
The few women that do excell in the hard core areas of IT tend to be single and single minded about their profession.
Spot On
May 15, 2008 - 09:08 ET by Zoe Brain... as a practical matter women don't work in IT because it is
too much work.
What do I mean by that? It requires long hours, weekends and
holidays and constant study. I work in IT for one our biggest banks.
There are few women in our IT division. Where are they most often
found? In areas of IT where one doesn't have to work long hours,
weekends, and holidays and where it doesn't take constant study. What
few women there are are project analysts or managers or business
analysts or managers. Few gravitate toward the hard core IT jobs of
programming and administration.
Spot on, or close enough. I was at a gabfest with the local branch of the Women In Technology and Communications - WITChes for short - and this very issue was raised and discussed at length.
Women tend to have lives outside work. Many workplaces are set up as hierarchical organisations, set up for the typical sarariman who works 80+ hours a week, never sees his family, earns a ridiculous amount of money, and is usually dead by his mid-50s. The only way to rise in such a hierarchy is to flog yourself to death, and the only relief you have is the male-bonding and communication that happens in the piss-up at the pub after work.
Most women don't buy into that. We have lives, children, and there are more important things than work. Half the salary and half the hours is more our style.
This doesn't work well in many organisations that have evolved for men-only. Promotion is via competition (well, what else could it be?) but the metrics are skewed. Someone of either gender who works half the hours of someone else, even if their net productivity is higher, will be passed over in favour of the Stakhanovite. Hence women don't just get paid less for doing fewer hours (like time off for giving birth...) but because they don't get the promotions. That's not sexist discrimination, it's just the way things are. It would apply to men too in that position.
Some employers recognise this. They recognise that somewhere after 30 or so hours per week, productivity per hour starts decreasing. By the time you hit 100 hours, it's negative over the long term, anything past a week or two. With limited human resources to choose from, by having "family friendly" policies, they gain access to the underutilised pool of talented women. They get more productivity at less cost, and with a more satisfied workforce.
Some more agile companies employ up to 3 people in different time zones in the same "position" now - typically Europe, USA, PacRim. They get 100 or so hours a week, an employee is available via Intranet/Conference almost 24/7 to deal with urgent problems, productivity per hour is wayyy higher, and employee satisfaction up too. It costs no more too. With flexible working hours and childcare, women are flocking to such employers, and they can have the pick of the best talent.
Darwinian selection and the marketplace will see which strategy is better. Personally, I think the "work them to death" strategy, while less stressful to males, is still unfair to them. We actually want to see our husbands too, and don't want our children asking "who is that man, Mummy?" when they see their father on the one weekend he has off per year.
Typical Liberal double
May 14, 2008 - 14:53 ET by ThermistoclesTypical Liberal double speak. Change the meaning of words to conform to their twisted perception of reality. This whole, "I was born with a woman's brain" business is a new one. I'm used to the silly "gender is not sex" line, with gender redefined as what you define yourself to be.
What is really sick and perverse is that there is a large segment of our society that is enabling and supporting this type of thing. This goes from the psychiatrists and their wacked out theories, to the doctors who perform this mutilation, to the MSM and their PC ilk that portray this as another version of normal.
I saw a special a while back on people who were born normal but were obcessed with the idea of being an amputee. They went so far as to injure themselves with to goal of having a leg or arm cut off. It was bizzar. It was sick. These people needed help getting right in the head. Would anyone consider it ethical to fulfil their wish simply because the claimed to be born with the brain of an amputee?
I shake my head and wonder sometimes.
Well I've heard everything.
May 14, 2008 - 14:57 ET by mjgWell I've heard everything. I wonder if she is related to Ed Wood, who used to cross dress. I guess not.
IT geeks...
May 14, 2008 - 14:57 ET by Syrius...get off on cybersex. The least amount of social interaction the better! What a riot! I truly thought I was on The Onion's website for a moment. Awesome!
Syrius
"...the dire consequences to society when people begin to believe that by
renaming someone to erase their humanity opens the door to the
devaluation of everyone's life..."-dscott
I have yet to understand
May 14, 2008 - 14:58 ET by DarasenI have yet to understand what it matters if the occupation or that has "enough" women or blacks or midgets or whatevers. It's so discriminatory yet the left fails to see it.
MIDGETS?!?
May 14, 2008 - 15:06 ET by SyriusDarasen,
That's so wrong! I'm trying to stop laughing so I can type...
Syrius
"...the dire consequences to society when people begin to believe that by
renaming someone to erase their humanity opens the door to the
devaluation of everyone's life..."-dscott
Bring back the pregnant
May 14, 2008 - 15:19 ET by niner-four-whiskeyBring back the pregnant "man".
Good grief.
Apparently the conversion
May 14, 2008 - 16:48 ET by AJApparently the conversion of this man-- err, woman--- uh, something-- was not complete enough. He/she/it still likes boyish stuff like computers?
Anyway, I think there should be more women in the IT industry but if it turns out the cultural norms don't (currently) support that-- then so be it. Slobbering over it in anger won't fix it-- unless you live in the magical world of the libz.
You know what you don't here these days? How come there aren't more men in the fashion industry, and the nursing industry? Hmm...
Now this is 'Change' we can live without
May 14, 2008 - 17:07 ET by SickofLibsWow, she's got about the same amount of years in being a daughter, sister and girlfriend as Obomb-o has as a Senator... less than three.
Be sure and check out his/her website where you can find out more about how he/she was a finalist for a Blackberry WOMEN Technology Award 2008!
'Wardrobe malfunction', 'gender reassignment', etc - what the hell is happening to the English language?
As someone who works in IT,
May 14, 2008 - 20:17 ET by Free StinkerAs someone who works in IT, I can only ask:
WHAT THE &%$#@! IS WRONG WITH THE FINANCIAL TIMES?!
Craptastic people suck!
May 14, 2008 - 20:36 ET by blogonatorWOW! This article sure brought out a craptastic bunch of people!
What ever happened to "live and let live"? This person is obviously capable and intelligent, but all anyone here can talk about is thier transexuality. It doesn't really have any effect on you, ya know.
If someone does bang up job, then who cares what they do outside of work!
Well, actually it does have
May 14, 2008 - 22:44 ET by jdhawkWell, actually it does have an effect in corporations here in the United States. Minorites, women, gay, lesbian, and transgendered are getting preferential treatment in hiring and promotion above and beyond their education, skill, experience, and hard work.
Many corporations have adopted a racist and sexist policy in regard to the above including where I work and they have the Supreme Court to back them up in rulings they made year before last that "extended" these policies for "25 more years." For IT jobs, corporations are going nuts trying to hire and promote because of the reasons I gave in an earlier post.
Diversity...ugh
May 15, 2008 - 08:53 ET by TheDeuceAbsolutely the biggest waste of corporate dollars...all to deflect the current infestation of Edwardian ambulance chaser. We live in a world where blacks expect millions in reperations for 'a debt that can never be repaid', men lose their jobs and careers for asking a single woman for a date or noting that she 'looks nice today', and criminals go to jail but the civil case when they hurt themselves robbing your home or business.
I worked in IT--
May 15, 2008 - 16:01 ET by misterbillI worked in IT-- before it was called that. I started in 1956 in Computer Technology. This year, even though I am retired, it caught up to me. I had a sudden strong urge to become a woman. (With my beard still intact.) I was informed that microsurgery has not progressed that far yet.
I guess it's all those bits and bytes that finally get to you!!!! A friend sugested it was from all the baudy stories over the years.