[Guest Blogger] A Proud Woman in IT

  • Article

Rosemary Warren (Montreal, Quebec, IT Pro)

IT Professionalism

Rosemary Warren sent me this email in response to Proud to be in IT and I wanted to share it with you.  My teammate Ruth Morton knows all about working in a male dominated industry and I wanted to post Rosemary's thoughts to encourage more women to get into the exciting world of Information Technology.

--------------------------------------------------

I didn't respond immediately because I wanted to reflect on your post for a bit first.

I've known since before high school, that I wanted to work in the computer field.  I liked the idea of being in control of the machine:  you tell it what to do, and it does exactly what you tell it.  But it was only about 10 years ago that I stumbled into the gaping hole that I want to fill.

Technology is often dumped into the laps of the end users.  The choice of hardware and/or software isn't always up to them.  But they need to be productive with what they're given.  And I believe in making the most of what you have, with what is available.  Buying the latest machine, the newest program, the hottest gizmo, isn't always the solution.

I'm proud that I can help people.  Whether that involves writing a program, designing a database, finding the right web page, or even just providing some clear documentation, I've made a difference.

I'm proud that my skills and knowledge are transferable across different industries, different size of companies, different platforms.  I've worked with something different everywhere I've been, but the business and individual problems are often the same.  In theory, I should fit in anywhere -- though when I was job-hunting, so many recruiters didn't know what box to put me into.

I never thought about my work as being a non-traditional role for a woman.  But at some of these computer seminars, including Technet, I can count the number of women on my fingers.  Should I be proud of that too?  Or are all the women still plugging away at the office?

--------------------------------------------------

Rosemary Warren is an IT professional in Montreal Quebec.  She is an Information Systems Administrator at the University of McGill and has her Bachelor of Computer Science and two CEGEP diplomas along with a "dusty CNA 3 certification".