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Eileen Brown, manager of Microsoft's IT Pro evangelist team

Posted on 16 Jun 2008 at 17:34

After leaving school, Eileen Brown joined the merchant navy where she became its first female navigator. Following a decade working in the oil tanker industry, she found her place working in the technology industry.

"I never considered being female as a barrier to anything," she declared. "The key thing is to encourage women. So often you see mothers who say: 'No, that's a boy's job.' If parents encourage girls in what they want to do at an early age, more children would grow up believing [that they can do it]. Nobody ever told me I couldn't, whereas nowadays so many influential people tend to advise against things."

Brown is involved in a number of initiatives to raise awareness of the dwindling numbers of women in IT, and helps those already in tech roles to come together to share ideas. "I never look at myself as an anomaly - it's other people that point it out," she said. "I don't feel the need to behave like a man any more. I have been there and done that and in a much harder environment."

Why IT really is women's work