fiber splicers - its mostly done in the field because in house we have handy-dandy prespliced fiber cables of different lengths. If you see (fill in local ILEC) out repairing a cut cable, chances are they might be splicing.

Ok, I don't do programming, but I do networking for an ISP. I was one of i think 2 women that graduated in our class of around 30 ( I went to DeVry ). Most of the women even on campus were returning students or in one of the new health or HR classes, taking night classes. Needless to say, there were not many girls even on campus, let alone in each class. There were A LOT of creepy guys and yes they would occasionally make you nervous, but if the guys in your school creep you out, then how far are you really going to get in life after school?
I helped out with the Girls in Technology programs we hosted and a lot of the younger girls thought it was pretty cool after seeing what I do, but there is a lot more drive to go towards a medical field. It is still technology and harder than I was willing to take on. In fact, I enjoy working with the routers, switches and servers all day and being able to understand what my IT fiance has to say at the end of the day. The only part I don't like is having to deal with users who don't know the first thing about checking their own LAN and always think that the first answer is to blame the ISP.