On the surface, she’s probably as unlike me as possible: she’s younger, I’m older; she’s loves the cutting edge of various technologies, I’m lucky if I can put the code in for a link without screwing it up; she’s not into “girly” things; I color my hair blonde, wear make-up, and have closets full of clothes and shoes (including sexy ballroom dance stuff); she’s not into having kids; I’m really into my two and my new grandson; she likes Tolkein, I like Zimmer Bradley. She’s happily married; I’m once-married-long-ago and now happily single. She probably drinks coffee (don’t all techies?) and I only drink tea. But I’ll bet that if we sat down with each other across our libations of choice, we’d find that we laugh at the same things; want the same things from the world in general and the opposite sex in particular; and have very strong senses of who we are, where our strength and “power” lie, and how we want to exercise them. We also use our voices, clearly, confidently, and appropriately. I it would be interesting to find out how those voices harmonize in a two-way conversation. It’s not likely to happen, given where we live and how we live. But I still think it would be way cool!

Dorothea Salo makes the following comment on Blog Sisters to Denise Howell’s post (see previous post here):
I really want to feel cynical about the rah-rah aren’t-women-great tone of this article. I really do. I really do.
But damn it, I am more ethical than many of my male counterparts. I do like my current all-female work environment better than the mixed ones I’ve been in. And I have toyed with finding a way to do things right on my own, since whenever I get hired to do things I end up forced to do them wrong.
I know some great guys and some terrible women, I admit. (I left my last job in large part because of a real dragon lady.) Still, I have to admit I think this article is on to something. Whether it’s all she’s cracking it up to be I’m not sure — but there’s a nugget of truth there
And I add the following:
Having fought the good fight back in the seventies, having worked for a dragon lady and a superb female manager (but not one male boss who could hold a candle to the latter), and now watching and reading about where women in the workworld are today — their struggles, their frustrations, the attitudes toward them — I see that we haven’t come a long way at all. The “good” guys out there understand what’s going on and don’t perpetuate the “good o’l boy, boys-will-be-boys” crap. The rest of ’em? Well, I for one am not going to let them get away with it. We should have the right to own our powerful female sexuality and not be demeaned for it, even in a (supposedly) spirit of public playfulness. (I do, however, believe that anything goes in private between consenting adults.)
I repeat all of this here because I think it needs to be repeated. Over and over again in many different forms and forums.