I don't really work in tech (or do I?) but over the years I also haven't come across people who thought I shouldn't or couldn't. Based on the stories I've heard and read, I've been lucky.
My life with computers began with Commodore 64 and Windows 3.11. Dad had a job where he had access to "the latest tech" so we had a PC or a laptop at home from very early on. Dad was (and is, at 66) a gamer and that's what I became first, too. Winter Games, Impossible Mission, Who Dares Wins, Maniac Mansion, Minesweeper... 😄 I learned to run C64 games from floppies and cassettes.
Back in junior high in the mid-90's, I chose IT as an optional subject (we had to choose three; I also took cooking and handicraft). I think there were 3-4 girls in a class of 20. I don't know if that raised any eyebrows but I wouldn't have given a hoot if it did.
Around that time I heard about HTML and started learning it mostly by myself. I got into making web pages and then styling them with CSS. And then came scripting in PHP and JavaScript. Web technologies has remained a dear hobby of mine and I'm currently updating my knowledge in it after a bit of a break due to, I don't know, other aspects of life.
In university I did pick a humanities major but with a tech twist: computer linguistics. We were quite a balanced group of women and men. Computer studies were a mandatory minor for us. There I could also see a lot of women (could be that university in general is more popular with women), but perhaps we were in minority now that I think about it. Don't remember seeing many women in the Java study groups.
In the middle of university I got hired by a translation company into a technical role (sort of a tech support). Others in the team were men at that time but there had been at least one woman before me and several came after me. I never experienced any bad attitude from others in the team and I was a popular helper in the company.
After 15 years in the translation company, I was invited to an interview (and got hired) at a company that I suppose I should call a tech company: we work with cloud gaming. I don't yet work with the most technical part of it all, I mainly coordinate the game part. But the culture in the company is such that people are given good opportunities to study and grow into their dream role so who knows what I get to do in the future!
I haven't had to struggle. I hope there will come a day when this is the norm: a girl/woman interested in tech or working in the field and people will think nothing of it.
Top comments (0)