Photos by Beth Kanter
Last Thursday, the Boston Technobabes group had our monthly night out, an event organized by Katrin Verclas. We ate, chatted, brainstormed about BraCamp East - and compared notes about the relatively new nonprofit technology blog titled "Today I Cried."
It turns out that several of us are avid fans of the aforementioned blog, which is a sort of soap opera about the triumphs and tribulations of the sole technology person on staff at a human service agency in New York City.
Several of us speculated about whether the author is a man or a woman. (He or she refers to a pregnant wife, though of course here in Massachusetts we are open to the possibility that both spouses in a marriage are women. But I digress.)
I don't know whether there is a specifically female way to approach blogging or tech support, but a discussion ensued about whether a willingness to tolerate stressful working conditions and low pay is typical of women, or of nonprofit workers, or of both.
Since I'm both a nonprofit worker and a woman, I'd hate to see either category equated with professional masochism. (Actually, I hate seeing anyone accepting the unacceptable, but naturally I take it more personally when I'm in the same boat.) Although our Technobabe get-togethers are mostly social events, it's heartening to see elements of professional networking and community organizing arise. One attendee at this dinner mentioned that she had just left a nonprofit technology job after six years without a raise. Several other attendees queried her immediately about what her dream job would be, and at least one is ready to connect her with a hiring manager at an organization that interested her.
By the way, if the author of "Today I Cried" came to us for emotional support or job leads, I'd do whatever I could, regardless of whether it turned out to be a man or woman. I'm pretty sure that all the Boston Technobabes would do the same. Of course, we'd want to know about the author's gender identity, but that's just because some of us are insatiable fans of his/her blog opera. We're not sexist, but maybe we're a little nosy.
UPDATE:
We now have confirmation that the author of our favorite blog opera is indeed an "IT MANager."
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