The Ladies Of Tech

I was a little puzzled by a recent post by Jack Kapica, the resident technology blogger for The Globe & Mail. In the piece entitled "Why Tech Careers Are Less Fun" (which, in case you missed it, you can find at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080222.WBcyberia20080222112444/WBStory/WBcyberia), Kapica talks about how tech is "male dominated."

What perplexes me, though, is that the only two people that I know who actually work in "tech" are both women.

One is a friend from my days practicing law in Toronto. She left the gleaming tower at Bay and King where we both toiled to join Nortel's in-house legal department. Following stints as the general counsel for a tech start-up and several years as a venture capitalist, my friend founded a law firm catering to Toronto's tech and start-up community. Her blog is an absolute "must read" for anybody interested in technology and law. And it's pretty darned funny as well! Check it out at http://venturelaw.blogspot.com/

The other woman is somebody that I worked with at my firm in New York. She received her undergraduate degree in computer engineering before enrolling in the joint JD/MBA program at the University of Toronto. After four years practicing intellectual property law in New York, she moved to Silicon Valley to become an in-house lawyer at--wait for it--Google!

So what's the deal here? Is Jack Kapica talking out of his arse? Does the fact that my friends practice law rather than write code make a difference? Or do I just happen to know some pretty darned extraordinary women?

I know, I know, an unusually serious tone for this blog. Back to the fun next time when I plan to tell the tale of "The Hyper-Allergenic Google Dork." Trust me, you're gonna love it!