Microserfs Final Paper

Career Women in Silicon Valley

There’s no surprise when an intellectual woman achieves success in today’s workplace. In the 1990’s, however, popular culture would downplay smart, high-achieving women and instead, depict sexy, attractive females as main characters. This reflection of society only helped fuel the typical stereotype that women should not compete for male-dominating careers because if they were to do so, they would upset the balance of the status quo. In Microserfs by Douglas Coupland, two female characters represent the stereotypical female experience in a male-dominated setting in the Silicon Valley during the middle 90’s.

Microserfs begins with the lives of a group of geek friends living in a communal home near the Silicon Valley. They work together at Microsoft, crunching programming codes into computers day and night. When offered a new job opportunity at a product-making company, all but one took the offer. The story then follows them on their quest in search of a purpose in life at this new entrepreneurial company. Amidst all the men working in this technological profession, there are two intellectual females trying to find their own identity in the geek culture: Karla and Susan.

The thoughts and fears of these two women are revealed in the novel. With their witty conversations and intellectual viewpoints on life, the novel is given a sense of female existence amongst the geek culture. Both girls didn’t think much of an afterlife, therefore both women harbored spiritual discontent. They didn’t turn to religion when something went wrong in their lives. Eventually, Karla came to trust and fall in love with a coworker named Dan. He accepted her intellectual persona and even revealed that he enjoyed having conversations with her.

The stereotype comes from traditions that can be dated to the early 1800’s. Females are shown their place in the kitchen and are handed a doll to play with. Males are to take after their fathers and are given cars to play with. Karla would try to fix things in her home but her parents would have her brother take over. When fighting over fixing a phone, her mother took her to the kitchen to talk about “women’s things” (Coupland 99). As a result, Karla was repressed from expressing herself. This made her even more inquisitive about pursuing a non-feminine career, such as the one at Microsoft.

Coupland successfully integrated themes of the body, such as food and fertility, into the novel through the behaviors of these Karla and Susan. Karla faced eating disorders because she couldn’t find self-fulfillment in her life while living at home. One of the minor characters in the book, Dusty, had the envy of Karla and Susan because she had a hard, muscular body. She began working at the same company and eventually found out she was pregnant. Females still have other responsibilities outside of work, including taking care of themselves and having children in the future. Coupland made sure to include these gender differences in his novel.

Susan starts searching for a boyfriend because she believed she’d be happier in a relationship. An email from one of the characters to another discussed the invisibility of unique individuals while working at Microsoft. After moving to work for the new company, Susan started coming out into her own woman by dressing more attractive. The discovery of tampons not being sold at a local store called Fry’s, aggravated her to the point where she formed a support group called Chyx. She wanted to raise awareness for females who were working in the same profession as her. She felt if men’s condoms could be sold in there, then why weren’t there any tampons? Her efforts went as far as to receive nationwide coverage on CNN.

Mainstream American society seems to fear brilliant women. A common culture stereotype states that women are not supposed to be smarter than the men. Ditzy females gain mass popularity in television shows. Let’s take a look at the very popular cartoon show Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! The gang of teenagers included two females, Daphne and Velma. Daphne was tall, slightly blonde-haired and attractive while Velma was short, dark-haired and rather plain-looking. Velma was intellectually superior and had many talents but they were overlooked when Daphne was characterized as the sexy damsel in distress. With the computer revolution on the rise, men are perceived to be the smart ones creating all the hardware and software. This intelligence makes men appear more attractive. Women however, have to be ditzy in order to come across as more likeable.

For example, The Simpsons had one of the smartest female characters on television. Lisa Simpson was depicted almost as an outsider. She was “not depicted entirely positively, being too studious and serious when compared with her brother Bart” (Inness 4). Smart females who work in the computer industry are seen as geeks. Gilmore Girls is an example of a show where female geeks flourish. This show contradicts the popular stereotype that beautiful women are ditzy by portraying attractive business women in the show.

Qualities assigned to society’s collective idea of smart, high-achieving women have changed somewhat dramatically since 1995. Women need to be strong enough to compete with men for professional jobs, such as computer engineering. A scholarly article from the American Psychological Association discusses the role of men and women in the workplace. Women who used direct language were less influential with men than women who used tentative language (Women in Academe). Men were less likely to trust and like a female who was more intellectual, outspoken and direct. The language style of male speakers affected neither their ability to influence others nor the evaluations they received (Women in Academe).

A woman’s appearance and reputation has become very fragile. If women are attractive and dress in a way that enhances their sexuality, they are perceived to be using their sexuality to get ahead. When women aren’t attractive, they are considered “almost manly.” If they are too assertive, they are considered “bitchy.” If they are not direct enough, women are considered weak. Women “are minorities, easily identified as different from the majority, subject to bias and discrimination, confronted with complicated issues of effectiveness in self-presentation, and required to walk a narrow behavioral line in order to succeed” (Women in Academe).

Karla and Susan depict the female experience in the Silicon Valley and give a voice to females in the geek culture. These intellectual women can be seen everywhere, from someone down the street to a character in a TV show. They aren’t given enough credit for their successes because beautiful girls receive more attention, mainly because they are less intimidating. Popular culture portrays sex and beauty but the smart female characters in the novel are able to have successful private and professional lives despite the common gender stereotypes.

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Works Cited

Coupland, Douglas. Microserfs. 1st. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1995. Print.

Inness, Sherrie. Geek Chic. 1st. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Print.

Porter, Eduardo. "Women in the Workplace." Business. 02 03 2006. The New YorkTimes. 26 Apr 2009.

"Women in Academe." Two Steps Forward, One Step Back. APA. 26 Apr 2009.