Hey, Women Work in IT, Too!

I've been amused by a series of ads Microsoft has been running in the print publications I receive.

See examples:
http://www.microsoft.com/ forefront /easyeasier /index.htm#attack_2_0

However, I've moved from amused to irritated. Every single "IT person" in the ads is a male (under the age of 35).

However, the only time a woman has appeared in ANY of the ads was as a villain (a witch).

The really irritating thing is that, unlike the IBM "Gil" ads, which feature the same two (white, male) guys over and over again (http://ibmwatch.eweek.com/blogs/ibm_watch/archive/2006/12/19/15079.aspx) , Microsoft and its ad agency (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/apr07/04-09ForefrontCampaignPR.mspx ) have gone out of their way to portray the varying heroes in the ads as a variety of races.

So Microsoft and McCann Worldgroup thought about representing diversity, and then decided that they didn't NEED to represent women in order to show diversity... at least not in IT. At least the "Gil" ads show women in the offices working. Microsoft just erased us from the story.

Thanks, Microsoft.

Thanks for telling that idea to the hundreds of thousands of people who saw these ads.

Thanks for making me feel like I really belong in IT. Thanks for making me feel like the only time someone like me will be in IT is as a nuisance to be abolished.

Thanks a lot.