I've been told by people who've been sent on corporate junkets to Gartner shindigs/what-have-you, that they have lots of "high-status" (hot) women wandering around. It was the same with that french psychologist who had the Madison Avenue types eating out of his hand in "The Century of the Self" documentary. Having beautiful women around is a signal of dominance. People who want to project power use this, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously. Film-makers use this whenever they want to portray someone with power.
The flip side: when you are hanging out with the other geeks, realizing you're at yet another sausage fest, does this make you feel powerful, or not so much?
To paraphrase the opera Carmen: if you want any enterprise to succeed, be sure you have women along!
> Having beautiful women around is a signal of dominance.
Excerpt from a book by Emily Gould (ex-Gawker blogger), talking about her real job at a publishing firm
"One of my tasks at my first job had been to stand at the locked doors near the elevator bank and lead guests inside. I would stand in the doorway and wait and, when I heard the ping of the elevator reaching the publishing house's floor, I'd start smiling. After shaking the guests' hands I would lead them into the little waiting area where there were two armchairs and a little table next to a rack of our newest shiny hardcovers, and I'd bring them coffee or tea or water and then go sit back at my desk. Then, when my boss was ready - he let some people wait longer than others - he'd tell me to go and get them, and I'd lead them through the maze of the office, chatting brightly over my shoulder. If the person or people walking behind me were men, I would be conscious of their eyes following the movement of my back, conscious always like the books displayed in the waiting area: an ornament that demonstrated the company's power."
What you don't see here is the inherent double standard in this conversation about women as accessories. The awesome blonde med school girl at the chess game? Accessory. Hot Russian immigrants, accessories. Are women just decor?
What I find aggravating is needing to fight to get men to take me seriously and see me as an intelligent, capable, human being. As long as we have an environment like this thread, we won't have that many women in tech.
Is it an environment like this thread which is the problem, or an environment like those discussed in this thread?
Carmen in the eponymous opera and Marissa Mayer at the early Google were each a part of the enterprise as more than mere decorations. Carmen is trading off her looks, but she is using them to manipulate men and not just being looked at. Unfortunately, her character inhabits an environment where women's opportunities are limited.
Tori Amos once claimed to be "The queen of the nerds" or something like that. I think there's tremendous opportunity for women in tech, precisely because there are fewer women. Yes, physical attributes matter. Short men have a disadvantage where social dominance comes into play. Such disadvantages can also be exploited.
In my experience, I have seen that very attractive women who want to be taken seriously by men will have a man as a business partner. This seems to take the edge off for other guys who may be too intimidated to approach the beautiful girl or who assume that someone so beautiful cannot also be intelligent and capable of doing business.
As a woman, what bothers me is that we have to constantly tow the line between being beautiful and not taken seriously or being average/butch/unattractive and judged to be too serious. It's a problem because even the most open-minded men are still heavily influenced my a woman's appearance and will make assumptions about her business acumen and character based on that alone.
As a man, I never, ever worry about being beautiful at all. And it never, ever causes any problems in my working life.
If you worry about 'towing the line' between beautiful and anything else, maybe its your own priorities that are the issue? Why is 'being beautiful' even in the equation? Because you put it there. So you have to deal with it. But its absolutely not other peoples' problem.
Written from a truly male perspective. Even girls who choose not to make attractiveness a priority find that, eventually, it becomes a priority that society imposes on them. Or at least a topic that's constantly brought up when talking about a woman's abilities. How many articles talked about Elena Kagan's "mannish, butch" looks when she was appointed to the SC? Or Michelle Obama's fashion sense when she became First Lady?
The blonde in my story above isn't an accessory. She's an accomplice.
The Russian gals on the other hand are definitely accessories though. That's sketchy. That said, more than a few will take advantage of their opportunity and do something great with it.
"Film-makers use this whenever they want to portray someone with power."
My favorite recent example of this: The scene in the Dark Knight when Bruce Wayne is shown sunning himself on the deck of his yacht alongside soloists from the Moscow Ballet.
edited: It was the Moscow Ballet, not the Gotham Ballet.
The fact that the Google dudes got a brilliant, attractive woman on team google that early was no doubt a terrific qualifier as to the character of the founders and other early team members.
Investor think: "If she's cool with these guys, they must be cool dudes."
The flip side: when you are hanging out with the other geeks, realizing you're at yet another sausage fest, does this make you feel powerful, or not so much?
To paraphrase the opera Carmen: if you want any enterprise to succeed, be sure you have women along!