I hate to say it, Nick, but that IS how you came off sounding...

I agree with jfuller. If anything, bias in the IT workplace is TOWARDS women. Indeed, when a woman applied at a tech support center previously worked at I made an off-hand remark to the manager that he'd better hire her. A week earlier, a woman didn't get the job of bus driver in a neighbouring town and successfully sued the bus company for thousands of dollars for 'discrimination'! This particular woman wasn't all that good at her job, but I've met lots that were. I've seen some competition though, as some 'geeks' that try to give the 'little girl' a hand with 'the complicated computer systems' tend to get resentful when said 'little girl' suddenly blows them into the weeds with her expertise.

I remember the 'educational bias' that was spun at us as teenagers, trying to get us to go into particular fields. We pretty much just ignored it and did whatever we wanted to do, or whatever we hoped would earn us the most money...