[eitland]

As an example of playing this the opposite way "The Practice of System and Network Administration", first ed. has a story about a woman in pink coverall that get everybodys respect.

The reason: everybody figures out if you can get away with that you have to have pretty amazing techical skills.

(Haven't come around to the second edition yet but the first edition follows me. Covers everything from cabling and datacenter layout to hiring, firing and salary negotiations.)