It is great to be a woman in tech!

      Keine Kommentare zu It is great to be a woman in tech!

Yes, it is really great to be a woman working in the tech industry. I just returned from an electronics trade show, chips and stuff, very techy, and it was really relaxing! Seriously! It starts with the fact that since there are so few women in tech the women’s restrooms at tech events are never crowded. Where women often queue in public places, not so at tech conferences, events and trade shows. Clean and mostly empty spaces, almost enjoyable! Walking the show grounds was also great. Do you know that at trade shows, you walk down the isles and you constantly get talked to from the side? „May I interest you for …“, „Hi, can I show you our product?“ or „Excuse me, what are you looking for?“. It goes on and on and on until your ears almost start bleeding. Not so for women at tech trade shows. It is like you are invisible, so relaxing! No one talks to you, no one notices you, not even when you stare right at them, they just ignore you and pay attention to the next best male they can spot. Almost feels like a super power, I am invisible! Amazing!

But in all seriousness, this is not funny, not at all. I know what I am talking about since I know exactly how it was to walk over this very same trade show as a man and it was a dramatically different experience. Exhausting, admitted, but that’s how trade shows are. But as a woman in this tech industry it is a total disaster! I almost had to smash booths to get any attention. And if you get some they often treat you like a child, starting to explain things from the very basics, they simply assume that you aren’t an engineer. The almost funny moment often is when they start to realize that they are in fact talking to a lead engineer. Or when they start to realize it when you start to talk code, bits and bytes, acronyms and tech babble.

As a male engineer I usually was approached, talked to and then also ignored when they figured out I would not buy thousands of chips. Now that I am buying thousands of chips, they ignore me right from the start and probably regret it later. Both is not OK but the latter is definitely much worse since it is based on misogynistic prejudice and gender bias – and all that based on how someone looks like and presents. This must end and we all have the responsibility to end it. This is a social problem, not just in tech and not just a male problem. Even women at the same show exhibited the same patterns. We are all part of the problem but we need to become part of the solution.

Schreibe einen Kommentar

Deine E-Mail-Adresse wird nicht veröffentlicht. Erforderliche Felder sind mit * markiert