But seriously, I think this is a refreshing article, considering the usual gender in tech articles here. I'd like to think that there are plenty of places a woman can work as a professional developer and not be subject to such rampant discrimination and sexual harassment that most of us find it difficult to believe.
I recommend everybody believe and act as if there are plenty of awesome companies to work at. If you find yourself at a company that sucks, for whatever reason, kick their asses to the curb and find a new one.
I was recently in an 11 week class for Machine Learning. 3 of the best students in this course were females. What was funny to me was how gender was never really an issue for anyone. Competent people are typically awestruck by smart people who are displaying brilliance. I was always cracking jokes about "well, I'm not (insert her name here), so I'll have to go look at her code before I can do that."
The big difference in treatment occurred with the lone female in the course who wasn't a good coder. Despite her having more experience than many in the class, she quickly fell behind. I witnessed a vicious cycle, in which she (probably due to the way she had been treated in the past) was ultra defensive when criticism came down, which then caused a difference in how she was criticized, which was then picked up on by her...... She complained to me about being discriminated against for her gender. While I'm very sympathetic to females in our industry who suffer at the hands of these brogrammer idiots (anytime I see anything remotely like that kind of behavior, I don't hesitate to LITERALLY GRAB the guy/guys, pull them aside, and give them a menacing rebuke), this was a case in which gender wasn't actually the issue. It was personality. And I have no doubt that gender discrimination in her past helped create this personality. Such a challenge to deal with this.
Interesting touchstone for something that I've always thought about these things, but that seems to go against the popular opinion here.
From my general experiences, I believe that the majority of what appears to be sexism, racism, etc is actually about respect, and not what the poor treatment appears to be about. When a person has self-respect and is generally respected in the peer group, these sorts of ridiculous, cruel, ad-holmium type attacks just don't happen, or vanish about as soon as they start.
When a person does not respect themselves, though, or acts in such a way as to lose respect in their group, then there's a certain type of person (mostly those brogrammer idiot types) out there that will seize upon that and attack that person with whatever they think will make them the most uncomfortable and upset. Sexism, racism, bigotry, any way that the person is different from the others, anything that they're insecure or uncomfortable with. The person doesn't really feel that way; they just use it to attack the weak. Of course, that's pretty asshole-ish behavior too, and I'm not sure that I'd call that better than actually being bigoted.
It is very common for people to blame external factors for their own shortcomings. Gender descrimination may have played a part in whatever trama made her so defensive, but it also may have played no part at all. Her perception of gender descrimination is skewed, so why would you take it at face value? We are all capable of experiencing events which never actually occured (as she did in your class) and so scapegoats are not necessarily tied to the events and mindset which lead to the problem in the first place.
+1 for the refreshing positive stance on the topic. I testify I'm personnally very upset for being pointed out as collectively guilty of discriminating, although I really try my very best to treat people equally.
I sometimes wish we could just forget about sex altogether, rather than point the finger to men in conferences and blogposts. I have seen a man being fired after a debate about the harm of illustrating a blogpost about marriages in the company with ball-and-chains, and I keep thinking the solution was extreme. I am now wary of legal consequences whenever I speak with women at work. Which isn't good, compared to my original intent of treating people regardles of their sex.
If you find yourself at a company that sucks, for whatever reason, kick their asses to the curb and find a new one.
And don't forget to call them out for it, publicly. I know that's easy to say, and in reality it's going to be hard to deal with the inevitable onslaught of abuse you're going to take for it. But companies have to make an effort to ensure that toxic environments are eliminated.
"And don't forget to call them out for it, publicly."
Many homeowner's policies allow you to pay a bit extra to add defense against defamation lawsuits to your liability coverage. You should at least put this in place, unless you have $30,000 - $100,000 in disposable savings to defend against a defamation suit.
This is what you need to plan for if you intend to make public statements that damage a business' reputation - and that's if you know you're right and have thorough documentation of every claim you make. If you lack any of that documentation, it's going to cost you a lot more.
I don't understand what you just said here. Because homeowner's insurance policies allow riders for defense against defamation lawsuits, you shouldn't talk about your experience at a company? Why?
You can be sued for making defamatory statements against your prior employer, so you better make sure you can handle the court costs if it comes to that.
It's not just the court costs. They will also try to paint you as less than competent and trying to play the gender card. To try to salvage their own reputation, they'll publicly trash yours. Make sure it's worth it to you before you go down this road.
Note well: I am not justifying what such a company will do. I am merely saying that they almost certainly will do this.
But seriously, I think this is a refreshing article, considering the usual gender in tech articles here. I'd like to think that there are plenty of places a woman can work as a professional developer and not be subject to such rampant discrimination and sexual harassment that most of us find it difficult to believe.
I recommend everybody believe and act as if there are plenty of awesome companies to work at. If you find yourself at a company that sucks, for whatever reason, kick their asses to the curb and find a new one.