Index

In the previous column, the leaders of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Association for Women in Computing (AWC) discussed the unique rewards that they reap for their work: a sense of empowerment, mastery, intellectual challenge, financial rewards, even fun.

This month, we'll finish the conversation with a look at the Association itself, and why its members turn to it for fellowship, professional advancement, and once again, the "F" word: fun.

AWC's National Capital Chapter (NCC), with more than 100 members, is part of a nationwide non-profit organization that promotes the advancement of women in computing professions. Members and guests enjoy monthly evening program meetings on the 4th Monday of every month (except December) at locations throughout the D.C. area, including suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia. Past programs have offered authoritative looks at everything from "Windows NT vs. Windows 95" and data warehousing to Web site production and the Year 2000 problem. Members can also subscribe to an E-mail list discussing the issues and events for women in computing. Local "lunch bunches" offer a cozy, informal way to meet other members. And AWC-NCC gets involved in community events, such as NetDays, during which volunteers wire K-12 area schools for Internet access.

To get a closer look at AWC membership benefits, let's turn to our panel of experts:

Orwant, who was president of the National Capital Chapter in the mid-1980s, says, that AWC "provides opportunities to develop skills in a more diverse and friendly environment than the workplace." Andrews, the chapter's past president and its liaison to the national group, signed up when she was looking for ways to advance in her field. "I felt it offered several distinct benefits," she says, "such as networking, interesting programs and training conferences, and mentoring possibilities."

Says Summers, the chapter's current president, "This is a place where people with all kinds of interests come together: and by combining their interests, we get alchemy.

She likes to see how AWC members "make information available to one another, empower and encourage one another. That's not done enough in the workplace." And she adds that there are special benefits to being with other women only (although men are welcome at meetings, and some regularly attend): "It means that we can just be ourselves ... and we can be as good as we can be, without any artificial constraints."

Lecher puts it another way: "It's nice," she comments, "to hang around a group of women who don't look at me blankly when I tell a funny story about a client."

To Floy, a fellowship like AWC is a natural choice. "I watched my grandmothers enjoy their farm extension clubs," she observes. "I watched my mother enjoy her Sunshine Club and Linger Longer club: a collection of housewives sharing their experiences as mothers, wives and friends. AWC seems to be the next step in this continuum."

In my view, membership in a professional group such as AWC can help women recognize their own professional standing. You don't have to design supercomputers or hack your way into the Federal Reserve in order to be a computing professional. Information technology recently became the nation's biggest industry. It didn't get this way through employing only a small, select workforce.

Orwant points out that her leadership role in AWC gave her a chance to develop new skills. "I learned how to speak before actual people, how to conduct meetings, how to plan programs for meetings, about by-laws, about plans and procedures," she notes. "These skills have been invaluable."

As they carry the confidence they gain back into the workplace, women often take a closer look at women's role in the computing professions: and they sometimes notice qualities that women can bring to the field.

Through many years of changing computer rooms, Lecher has observed that "the areas that the women occupied were much neater." True to the stereotype of messy geek-dom, she says, the men's desks were "covered in scrap papers, assorted computer stuff, cables of every description, and just plain junk. I have yet to see women leave such a mess behind."

Perhaps we know we'd have to clean it up.

Beyond superior housekeeping: hmm, virtue or vice -- some say women do bring women's culturally assigned traits to the field. Yet Live Wire admits that asking whether women will humanize computing is like asking whether women would foster world peace once they got the vote. Let's see. We won the franchise in 1920, prior to a second World War and the atomic bomb. Nonetheless: "Women, on the whole," says Floy, "have a better understanding of the human nature of a process. In my observation, women build gentler and kinder systems. Not necessarily better or worse, but certainly friendlier."

What do women who work in computing hope to see next in their profession?

Orwant, having over the decades watched the workday get longer and more intense, hopes computer professionals can fight back for more fair treatment. She thinks more experienced women in the field should advise younger women facing stressful situations. Lecher would like to see more women in management professions: even though she acknowledges that, "the brain-set that management has is so much different than the brain-set that computer professionals have."

Summers hopes that every woman can fulfill her potential in her own way. To those considering entering the profession, she says, "Making a transition really is hard, but that's part of the fun; that's what makes it worthwhile."

Floy suggests the following. "Include hardware in your learning and career path," she says. "Computer technicians make an amazing amount of money! Managers, programmers and analysts who understand the hardware and back-room processes have a distinct advantage over those who only know the keyboard."

Concludes Andrews, "Don't be afraid to take chances. Believe in yourself, and don't let anyone discourage you."