Discrimination against women has been happening in the technology world repeatedly. This is not a new topic for ChurchMag, in fact, I’ve made it my mission to bring the conversation over and over for the whole year of 2016. The issue has already had numerous issues in the past with harassment and job loss, but the conversation has hit a new tone, one that is blatant and disgusting.
The Wall Street Journal posted an op-ed piece that is getting a lot of attention. A venture capitalist, John Greathouse, decided to “help women” who are wanting to get hired, funded, or promoted by essentially telling them to strip their digital identify of anything female based. (If you want a further discussion on it, check out the ChurchMag Podcast episode featuring Meghan Howard.)
In the article, John says he was “helping” though his words were tone deaf. Yet, I see this as hitting any even more worrisome problem that we cannot let invade the church tech space.
The public reacted negatively and passionately. He ended up issuing a public apology with a very smart comment that is the focus of this article.
“I told women to endure… rather than acting to fix the problem.”
His approach to fix a difficult problem was to find the easiest solution for him. He would not have to endure as a man or a venture capitalist, women who are trying to get money is. He would not have to change, they would. The problem is there, he recognizes it, but his initial answer inherently states that they need to change.
And that’s the problem people in sin have. Unfortunately, Christians, congregations, and church staff have this issue to but are not addressing it. You need to work around the issue, not the Church offering a solution. That’s too hard. That requires me to work. In essence, it’s a problem, yes, but it’s not my problem.
What about the church technology ecosystem? Has it creeped in?
Even In The Language We Use
To answer that last question, I think it is as important to look at the numbers of volunteers with each gender. But for the future of the Church, I think we need to go beyond the poll numbers and look at the language we use.
Language is a very powerful thing. There is the direct comments where we gossip about people being someone’s back. Worse is when we try to be constructively critical but come off as sexist, racist, or simply ignorant. But even more pervasive is when we have those unconscious comments.
We make these general comments in life that are unconscious but do promote a division. Some general examples in our culture include:
- “Great job guys” to a team with numerous women.
- “That’s retarded” during worship when a portion of your congregation is developmentally delayed.
- “You kids” to your church staff, even though your worship pastor or youth pastor is over the age of 21.
- “…just a volunteer” as a volunteer talks about their commitment to their church.
You could say I’m being being critical about grammar. Yet, how is that impacting your church? Have you talked with your congregation in an open forum? What is the status of your church tech team as well as the vision of growing it?
I dare say, we could and should do better.
Nathan says
Why is there no noise being made about the lack of men in nursing or education? I’m failing to see how women are being discriminated against in tech. Maybe fewer women are interested in tech degrees or the area, just as fewer men are interested in nursing or teaching degrees. Is this an I herently bad thing? Of course not. Should we give special treatment to women in order to get a job? Of course not. The job should be given to the most qualified candidate, regardless of gender.
Jeremy Smith says
You assume there is no noise being made. Do you know that to be true? (My wife’s a teacher, it’s a HUGE issue) But that’s not the point of this article.
You state, take the best person for the job, but if we are not giving women the same encouragement and attention, we are actually failing so far before the hiring process that we will never get the best candidate.
Further, adding a new perspective, someone outside of the “my perspective” has shown scientifically to be a huge benefit for ones company even if it doesn’t have the highest GPA or longest list of work experience.
So I fully disagree that women should actually be given special treatment. At the very least, for the company. But fr the ethics and morality of it all, people it’s what we need to be doing.
KM says
Women are being discriminated against when they send out 100 resumes after graduating with a MASTERS degree from a technology program and they cannot get an interview. When they do finally get an interview (with a couple churches), they realize after walking into the room the interviewer was not expecting a female because their name is not obviously feminine. When you have the same (if not better) qualifications and skills as the men (plus experience), yet still struggle to get a seat at the table, it’s blatant discrimination.
This is my story, and this topic needs to be spoken about again, and again until it is an actual non-issue.
Jeremy, thank you for standing with women and having this conversation. I am just getting back into the church tech world after a couple year break to focus on school. I could not find any conversations regarding females in church tech if my life depended on it a couple years ago. I am refreshed to see a few little trickles happening now.
Jeremy Smith says
First, I’m sorry you struggled with the initial gender bias, second I’m sorry you met a discriminatory church.
If the Church’s model is God’s grace and love , it’s unacceptable.
Finally, I hope this is the beginning of change and we take it seriously.
Phil says
When was the last time you personally encouraged a non male into tech ministry in church. How did you do it how long did it take . How was it different to encour aging a male into tech. Techie to techie skill transfers tend to be non relational does this have a baring on it?
Jeremy Smith says
The last time I encouraged a non male into tech ministry? Last week!
How did you do it? I saw a gift in them using tech and shared with her a huge set of options.
How long did it take? The actual suggestion, just a few minutes. But this is after months and years of investing in the congregation and community all the while.
How was it different to encourage a male into tech? The difference I see is as humans in general with our sin nature, we think about everything from our own perspective, which is why this is such a hard process. We need to develop empathy for our sisters in Christ, planning for what could be experienced in that process, and support when barriers do come up.
Techie to techie skill transfers tend to be non relational does this have a baring on it? Skills-wise, no. But barriers for women in tech rarely are about skills.