Jason Sparapani (right)  Associate Editor of SearchSQLserver features an interesting movementstarted by a whimsical trio that  adopted clothing rather than ribbons to make a statement  supporting Women In Technology that is now starting get a serious following in SQL circles.

Bill Graziano, the Professional Association for SQL Server's VP for finance, welcomed the crowd, at the October meeting of some 4,000 at the Professional Association for SQL Server meeting. He was notable for wearing a kilt, and then asked others dressed like him to also stand, whereupon some 40 men did so.

“Those are the people that last year interrupted my keynote to demand that I wear a kilt,” Graziano (left) said. “I quickly buckled under and I keep my word, so here I am in my kilt.”

SQL Kilt Day has become something of a tradition at the summit (which offers training and networking for people who work with Microsoft’s SQL Server database) in representing support for Women in Technology (WIT), a PASS interest group.

WIT recently expanded its mission from spreading awareness about issues that women in the science and technology fields face, such as lower average pay, to promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics among girls and young women.

Kilt-wearers at the PASS summit lunch started from a trio in 2009 to about two dozen this year.

Wendy Pastrick, database administrator (DBA) at Calamos Investments in Naperville, Ill and a WIT regional activity coordinator says the kilts, are a symbol of support more declarative than the traditional ribbon worn in support of many causes.

Practice manager at consultancy UpSearch in Brunswick, Ohio, Allen White (right) said he wore a kilt to the conference because he has a daughter who’s struggled to find a job in a tough economy. The dearth of women in the science and tech fields is a result of “a perception that technology is for gaming and gaming is for geek boys,” he said. “We need to get girls to understand that it’s a great career opportunity.”

The link between the traditional men’s dress of the Scottish Highlands and WIT is not so clear-cut as the answer. It began in 2009 as a joke. But it had to do with the ventilation the garment offers, not its similarity to a skirt.

“I mentioned it was hot in the summer and somebody dared me,” said Grant Fritchey, (left) a product manager for Red Gate Software and owner of several kilts. So just before the PASS Summit in November that year, he took to Twitter. “In my capacity as nothing at all I declared day two SQL Kilt Day.”

Three men, Fritchey, Steve Jones, editor in chief of SQLServerCentral.com,(right)  and Bill Fellows, database developer and author of the World of Whatever blog, (below right) bared their knees at the conference that year for no reason other than whimsy. As for Fritchey, he’s not even Scottish“The first year it was pretty freaky -- three guys running around in kilts,” he jokes.

They were doing this, on the day of the WIT luncheon, which falls on the conference’s second day. Buck Woody, a Microsoft cloud computing specialist, husband and father (below left) saw the connection and an opportunity to back something important.

“I want my daughter to know that anything is open to her,” he said. So he pitched the idea of making it official. The guys in kilts would throw their support behind WIT at the luncheon. The group was thrilled, if not a touch surprised.

As well as men wearing kilts,curiously more males attended the luncheon than WIT had seen in the eight previous years of hosting the event..

The next year at the conference, about 20 men appeared in kilts, some wearing T-shirts that read, “I’m supporting Women in Tech. What are you doing? (Plus, I look hot in a skirt.)”

Regardless of the reasons for wearing them, the kilts get people talking -- hopefully to their daughters and granddaughters -- that women have a place to claim in technology. “It’s a visual cue that anybody there at the conference, you’re going to see somebody in a kilt.There are so many people supporting the cause you’re going to see somebody,” says Wendy Pastrick.