Peter,

again I worry about this being self-selecting. People who report on 
surveys are .... the people who report on surveys. A code4lib survey 
would be nice, but I'm really interested in "on the ground" troops. And 
I think the questions would have to be specific to what one does:

- installs and fixes equipment
- runs updates/backups on ILS
- writes scripts
- writes code
- manages local network
- modifies ILS tables for local customization
- creates web pages
- makes decisions on tech purchasing
- supervises staff that runs ILS/local network

Well, that's probably a stupid list, but a smarter list could be made. 
In other words, I would want what you actually do to define whether you 
are a techie -- not whether you consider yourself a techie (many women 
demean their own skills -- "Oh, I just push a few buttons"). [1] I'd 
like to see it be very broad, and later we can decide if we think 
modifying ILS tables counts as being a "real techie."

kc
[1] For painful reading: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28257411 The 
letters of Ada Lovelace.


On 11/27/12 8:50 AM, Peter Murray wrote:
> A friend of mine is one of the principals behind "The Survey for People Who Make Websites" from A List Apart:
>
>    http://aneventapart.com/alasurvey2011/00.html
>
> Is that the sort of thing we'd like to do?  If so, I can get some insights from him about how he develops, organizes, and runs the survey.
>
>
> Peter
>
> On Nov 27, 2012, at 11:23 AM, Karen Coyle <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> I would really like to see such a survey. I did one at my previous place
>> of work, the California Digital Library (nee Division of Library
>> Automation) where I worked for over 20 years. I had kept org charts and
>> phone lists, and was able to see that over that span of two decades the
>> tech staff (which was most everyone there since all we did was tech
>> development) was from 2/3 to 3/4 female. But when I said this in front
>> of a group of employees the men were startled. I'm guessing that they
>> saw themselves as techies, and the women as "helpers" -- even though the
>> DBA, the data designers, and many of the programmers were women. So it's
>> not that there aren't women in technology, it's that the women in
>> technology are often considered to be "not doing technology" because
>> they are women. [1]
>>
>> So we should survey. I believe that we will find that in library
>> technology departments there are many "invisible" women. Sadly, women
>> will be more present in that environment for the wrong reasons -- mainly
>> that it's lower paying and that men are more likely to get the higher
>> paying industry jobs. (The University of California overall staff ratio
>> is 65% female -- as perhaps many government agencies are.)
>>
>> kc
>> [1] Must read: Joanna Russ. How to suppress women's writing.
>> http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/9392874 It's about writing but actually
>> pertains to all activities.
>>
>>
>> On 11/27/12 6:57 AM, Rosalyn Metz wrote:
>>> I think first we would need to do a survey of how many women are in the
>>> community.  if it turns out that this community is only 17% women then
>>> we're on target.  who knows, maybe we're actually 10% women and we're way
>>> above target.  in which case the real question might be "how do we get more
>>> women in tech."
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 9:11 AM, Chad Nelson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Ooops. Hit the wrong key.
>>>>
>>>> So, about our presenters...
>>>>
>>>> Is it a problem that only 4 of our 33 presenters are women? Or that only 16
>>>> of 95 proposers were women?
>>>>
>>>> Is there something this community needs to do to encourage more women to
>>>> feel like they can and should speak / propose sessions?
>
>

-- 
Karen Coyle
[log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet