IBM 'Hack A Hairdryer' Idea Branded Sexist

An image from the Hack A Hairdryer campaign

The company says sexist misperceptions keep "bright minds" out of research labs, but its campaign appears to have backfired.

IBM has come under fire after launching a 'women in tech' initiative called Hack A Hairdryer.

The technology firm said it wanted to "blast away the barriers" that confront women every day - and that sexist misperceptions keep "bright minds" out of research labs.

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But the idea appears to have backfired after the name of the project annoyed some.

Molecular biologist Upulie Divisekera said on Twitter: "I leave hairdryer fixing to the men. I'm too busy making nanotech and treating cancer."

Another tweeter called RebeccaDV, wrote: "IBM, no-one is asking male scientists to hack beard trimmers."

IBM's move has been criticised as sexist

One added: "Err, does IBM stand for inept bumbling misogony?" with another chipping in: "Can someone let IBM know that it's not the 1950s anymore?"

Gizmodo writer Mika McKinnon pointed out that the timing of the initiative was bad - 30 years on from a mass shooting at a Montreal engineering school that left 14 women dead.

She wrote: "Women are allowed to use hairdryers, and to like them. Hell, they can even hack them if it tickles their fancy.

"When I’m doing fieldwork, I keep a hairdryer in my toolbag. I use it to warm up cranky LED displays, gently dry out damp electronics, shrink heatwrap after repairing wires, and give my batteries a tiny boost if the generator is still running strong.

"A hairdryer is a damn useful part of my geophysics field kit. But a hairdryer-based hackathon is not the way to entice women into science.

"The timing (of) the campaign just makes it so much worse. I get that Canadian history is invisible outside the country, but it’s the largest massacre in North America specifically targeting women for being engineers.

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"Surely that’s history worth knowing about if you’re trying to recruit women into engineering."

Earlier this year EDF Energy's 'Pretty Curious' campaign to encourage young girls to enter science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers was criticised for its name.

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