Wow - no knee-jerk reactions here!
As a woman who's spent over a decade in the IT industry it's nice to know that I am automatically assumed to be:
Unable to "lift the heavy servers"
Spend 23% of their time at work doing their nails, talking about last nights episode of "Celebutard Housewives", spreading malicious rumours [sic] about the boss etc, etc.
Not "productive and knowledgeable in the workplace."
An "ass kisser"
A bitch
And I've lost the will to read any more...
"women, on the whole, tend to eschew subjects such as engineering, physics and maths, which rather precludes them from employment in these areas. Is it because these subjects are in some way "manly", or difficult ? Why do women avoid them ?"
Perhaps because they don't fancy a career spent with the likes of some of these commentators!
And Kate is clearly talking about making the difficult choices faced over redundancy - not, as some of you seem to assume - firing men just because they have a penis.
The sheer volume of nasty comments that have been thrown around just because a successful female in IT dared to express her own opinion on her own blog should be an embarrassment to the majority of IT workers.
Way to embarrass yourselves guys (oh wait, many of you were anonymous cowards)
Katy Bairstow
MCSE, CCNA and lifter of many a heavy server
Biting the hand that feeds IT
