Fortunately Microsoft’s staff members object to objectification

Microsoft includes session on “Women in IT” at it’s TechEd conference on the Gold Coast. Also included are ‘bikini babes’ to titillate the guests. *facepalm*

Microsoft’s own staff made a lot of noise about this, sending a clear message that this is the year 2010 and the objectification of women is not OK. This is great news and the article is also very entertaining, due to Microsoft’s explanation of how they came to have half naked women at their Tech conference.

From the article: Meter Maids stunt backfires at Microsofts geek gathering

Microsoft says it had no idea the “meter maids” it hired to titillate attendees of its TechEd conference on the Gold Coast would be half naked after the promotional stunt backfired spectacularly.

“Hey, I have this great idea for our conference. Lets hire the Meter Maids. Who are they? Just let me ‘google it’ to find out more about them.” (Would IT guys know about Google?)

Ironically, a key session at the conference was devoted to “women in IT”.

Maybe the session should have been titled “Women in IT: how to create a hostile work environment.”

More:

“It seems that there are still marketing and promotional folks in the IT world who consider objectification of women to be ok,” said female IT worker Kate Carruthers.

“Sadly this issue has detracted from Microsoft’s long history of supporting and encouraging women in IT and from their workshop that is part of the conference today.”

Even Microsoft evangelists Nick Hodge and Catherine Eibner expressed their dismay on Twitter. Eibner, who hosted the women in IT lunch at the conference, said it was “a badly done attempt at providing local Gold Coast context”.

In a statement, Microsoft said it would like to “sincerely apologise for any offense caused by the promotional staff”.

“We were unaware of their exact costuming until the day of the event, at which time it was too late to be addressed,” the company said.*

Carruthers said it should have been pretty obvious what outfits the meter maids would wear and even on the day of the event, there would have still been time for a re-think.

“I think that you can always send them home – it’s just wrong as a brand alignment exercise,” she said in a phone interview.

I think the apology is rather pathetic due to their claiming they were unaware of what the Meter Maids were about. They know exactly who the Meter Maids are, that’s why they brought them to the conference.

I do love this though:

Tracy Fellows, Microsoft Australia’s managing director, said on Twitter that she felt the stunt was “not acceptable PERIOD!” and “no one will be confused that this is JUST WRONG!”

Looks like the one speaking most sense on this issue is a woman! Great to see.

*whatacrock