So, why does it suck to be a woman in IT? Well, perhaps some of it's the gossip that starts when a woman starts working too closely with male team members. Maybe it's having your arguments dismissed because a woman wouldn't know what she's talking about? Maybe it's the feeling that you're just a quota filler? 

They are all brilliant and I love them all dearly. No one has ever meant me harm, but almost on a daily basis I have to deal with some situation that just wouldn’t happen if I wasn’t a woman. 

But is it enough to tell woman to stop going into the high paying field of engineering and computer technology, and instead tell them to embrace the subsistence pay of daycare and hair dressing? Maybe.

Why I Stopped Telling Young Girls to Go Into Engineering

The IT department where I work is pretty small and our technologies aren't the most up to date, but it is nearly impossible to get any idea of mine across to the boss. I am the only woman in the department.

Don't about others, but the problems described don't appear to be gender specific to me. I have plenty of male friends who felt the same and then realized "I don't want to be a professional programmer anymore." The real question is, when a developer reaches the point where the constant tech focus and tech talk gets boring, what do you do?

Some people ride it out, while others change their career. Getting bored of a profession isn't unique to IT. Do what you love. If you used to love programming and no longer love it, then do what you love now. Life's too short to spend it doing a job you no longer love.

I also do think, that the tech fixation isn't a gender problem and I also see enough geek-girls and geek-hating males in dev. I also suppose, that a nice job with boring coworkers might be more pleasant, that a job that really sucks which sucks with nice guys around.

Things take time to change. It's a shame that we don't have more women in our industry, but having a better balance (and thus -- I would argue -- a healthier environment) is a goal worth working towards.

Peace,

Cameron Purdy | Oracle

I've been developing Java applications for 6 years and went through love-hate attitude towards software engineering throughout my work experience. In any new company that I joint more and more ladies coming on board, predominantly from India, Russia and Easter Europe like myself. There is no gender difference in software engineering, the passion, focus, interest, motivation - those things that highlight you among other developers.