In the Orlando Sentinal - women are intimidated....

This article appeared on Jan. 1 in the Orlando Sentinal and I ran across it in the ASTD newsletter. It begins with the following information:

Fewer women are choosing professional computer science careers, and the number of women in computer science graduate programs has dropped to its lowest level in nearly a decade. Between 2000 and 2005, the number of women choosing computer science as an undergraduate major fell nearly 70 percent nationwide. "For most girls, it may indeed be intimidating to walk into a class of 40 people and see one other girl in the room," says University of Central Florida student Christie Lo. "I've had classes where I was the only woman in the room."

If all it takes to intimidate you is to be the only woman in a class of men, then contemplate how you might be getting in your own way of your success. What indeed are we missing here that causes some women to feel intimidated because of their gender? Instead consider this a gift and use an occasion such as this to learn from those who are so readily immersed in the industry. Get the insider secrets from them and appreciate the fact that something you have no control over, your gender, might just be a differentiating factor. If that doesn't work, practice being okay with being the minority in a situation - go to Europe and expereince being the only American in a room, go to parts of South Africa and expereince being the only white or black person for miles (depending on where you are), heck, go to the mall and experience being the only 30 something with ample hips in the limited. Being the only anything isn't a limitation or factor that should impede your confidence, it is what some marketers (i.e. Ries and Trout) would say is the key to business success.

Why are we all moving so darn fast?

The most common answer to "How are you?" is now "BUSY". Some get creative and invoke humor saying something like "Busier than a one armed paper hanger in a dress factory" or "Busier than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs." Okay, they're funny, but what in the world does it do to your confidence level to be constantly moving at the speed of sound? More mistakes happen this way, adding to the "failure complex" or "i'm stupid" emotion. More hasty, angry, frustrated, or over-done reactions happen in this "bullet train" mode and the real question is why? Have we as a society really trained ourselves that fast is the only way to succeed?

The new Hyundai commercials encourage us to "Think About It" and one is about instant gratification. It says "We don't like our job, we get a new one... We don't like our spouse, we get a new one". Then it mentions cars. If we don't like ourselves, can we get a new one of those too? Oh, we try with hasty diets, lose 30 lbs in 30 minutes, make a million in a month, etc. Years of programming and conditioning flat out don't change in an instant. If they did we would all be wealthy, thin, fit, and successful in whatever that means to us, by now.

What kind of expectations are we giving ourselves? Are they realistic? And if they are not, which.... well... they're not.... then what does that do to our level of confidence and ultimately our ability to get anywhere near the goals we are so quickly trying to achieve? Maybe a bit of a slow down would clear our head, help us in our direction, and give us a more objective realistic point of view.