Goddesses dispel geek stereotypes

10.07.2006
Keen to dispel the geeky image of life as a tech professional, a collection of women working in IT has created a calendar that dispels the usual stereotypes.

Dubbed IT Screen Goddesses, the calendar was created to address perceptions that have contributed to skills shortages and low IT course enrolments at universities.

Currently, females make up about 20 percent of the industry and the calendar features women in classic star poses from a range of Hollywood films including Pulp Fiction, Basic Instinct and American Beauty.

These are not your usual network engineers, IT managers and DBAs - just take a sneak preview of the calendar at http://www.itgoddess.info/ if you need convincing.

The calendar is the brainchild of Sonja Bernhardt, the first Australian to be inducted into the Hall of Fame for Women in Technology at a ceremony held in Silicon Valley last year.

"I'm hoping the calendar will raise awareness of the diversity of women in IT and smash through the perception of the geeky technologist," she said.