I want to jump in too - I know exactly what you mean- When taking my A+ course, I was the only female. Usually, I can just hit them with my weird sense of humor and I am accepted immediately. I can dish it as much as I can take it, don't let them intimidate you, just show off your knowledge and you'll get plenty of respect.
Oh yeah and you have to watch the male teachers too, I have never seen a female teacher in this field to boot. But, I did have one condescending male teacher, and I sat in the front. If i wasn't making notes, he would peer down at me and ask me if i understood what he just taught. God, it made me so mad, that i dropped the class and picked up another one instead later in the semester.

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Wow TechnoGirl, I'm happy to say that after 3 years of college I never had that happen! All our teachers were professionals outside of school; they were used to women in the IT workforce. It was usually the other guys in the class that liked to pick and tease. Guess they couldn't stand the thought of a woman who got all A's! I finally stole the mouseball from the mouse of the worst offender. We watched in amusement as this supposedly savvy guy tried new mouse drivers, a new mouse and new cabling. I finally couldn't stand it anymore and showed him is missing part. That got me accepted by the entire class and we had a great time finishing out our degree together.
As a funny addendum; there were three women going for the same degree and about 25 men. All three of us landed IT jobs, only one man was as lucky...

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I have a female CCNA teacher and everyone loves her. She can hang with the best of them.

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My husband has his first female teacher for his Novell admin class starting tonight. I'll ask him if there's any difference in teaching styles...

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I'd beinterested to hear if there is a teaching difference, I just thought it really strange that of all the schools I visited in the beginning that i did not come across one femal computer teacher. And i live in NJ, the supposed IT Central of the United States next to i suppose FLA I think.
lol

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Now that I think about it... I only ran across 1 female "formal" instructor - for an Oracle Entity Relationship class. I couldn't pick up any differences in teaching. She knew and delivered just as much as the other instructors I've had.

The "non-formal" instructors were speakers/presenters at conventions/seminars I've attended. I don't remember - but I don't think there was much of a difference in presenting style, either.

Lot of help that gave you, ey?

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Let me segue into a related topic - guys & gals presentation styles in IT.

Our former Sr. VP was a guy. Very technically savvy. Also very formal, almost rigid when it came to presentations. The directors (mostly all males) underneath him seemed to pick up on this and behaved pretty much like him.

We now have a female Sr. VP. Also very technically savvy. Knows her stuff just as well. But she brings humor and a more relaxed atmosphere to her presentations. Little by little - I notice the directors are also becoming a little more personable and approachable.

Is this what you all are seeing out there, too? The other way around? Or am I just biased? Or does it really matter?

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The main difference I've observed is how some (not all) students respond differently to one than the other.

Some guys (and some women) don't like having a female instructor for IT courses, because they feel that women aren't be as technical as men.

Some women specifically like having a female instructor, because they're a positive role model for the fact that females can make it in this field.

If the instructor is a dry, read from the book type who doesn't incorporate humor and doesn't relate well to students on at least a slightly informal basis, they're probably not a good instructor, period. (Sadly, this is not uncommon.) I've seen this in women as well as men (in fact, I might have seen it more with women....).

A tech school I did some work for in the past used to have co-instructors, one male, one female, leading classes, specifically because it seemed to work better to have one of each at the front of the room. As a bonus, one got two people's input on the course material, so it was less likely that anything important would be left out or misstated without correction (slips of the tongue happen to even the most knowledgeable instructors...).

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I have only seen one IT teacher that was female, and she hardly knew anything! It really made me mad because I was the only woman in the class except for the teacher. So, everyone thought that I would be the same way. Literally, all she did was hand out books and told us to read them and we would be tested at the end of the course. It really wasn't a good course, but I passed anyway, thanks to a really helpful website! http://www.networkdesigner.net helped me so much! I know that I hardly learned anything out of that class because the woman wouldn't even answer questions or explain anything. It was really a shame because there are so many smart successful women out there in the IT field, and she had to be one of the ones that thought she knew everything. It really disappointed me! But that website has been so wonderful! If it hadn't been for that, I know that I wouldn't have been able to pass my test. I thought that I was ready to take the test, but I went on there and took one of their practice exams and let me tell you, I knew that I had some more studying to do, and thank goodness I did, because I needed to know some of the information that I didn't know before going to their website. You all should really check it out!

http://www.networkdesigner.net
100% FREE IT certification Pratice Exams, Forums, and Study Guides

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My IT manager is a female and really has a great handle on IT. Ya know some people in IT become managers in IT and let their tech skills dry up, but she is very capable even after years mainly doing budgets, HR, etc.. A third of our techs are female and they do fine with the tech stuff, one is somewhat new, but she will do great in the industry in time.

I have had a few classes with two to four females at a time, and I've had many classes with no women.

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