Yesterday was a day of Women in Tech in Finland. After the
appropriate celebrations and talks, today my feeds are filled with
articles and comments around the pipeline problem. I feel exhausted.
The article I read around getting girls into the industry quotes 23% of women in the industry now. Yet, look at the numbers in relevant business and technical leadership positions. One woman among 5-6 people in the leadership groups isn't 23%. No women as head technical architects is even further from 23%. And don't start telling that there are no women of merit. Of course there are. You might just not pay attention.
In the last week, I've personally been challenged with two things that eat away my focus of being amazing and technical.
First of all, I was dodging a "promotion" into dead end middle management position. How would that ever make me a head technical architect I aspire to be? Yes, women with emotional intelligence make strong managers. But we also make excellent technical leaders.
Second, I was involved in a harrassment getting someone fired case in the community. It has been extremely energy draining even if I was just in a support role.
Maybe having to deal with so much of the extra emotional labor is what makes some people think again less of my merits. And I'm getting tired of it.
We talk of the pipeline problem, on how little girls don't take interest in computers and programming. If they look forward into their role models, they see women fighting for their advancement and mere existence. The pipeline leaks, and almost everyone who is in it is regularly considering exit just to get rid of the attitudes the ones with more privilege don't have to deal with.
How about improving things for the future generations on focusing on the current one so that we can honestly tell our little girls that this is the industry worth going for? It is the industry of the future, and we're not going to leave it, but a little bit of support for the underdogs would be nice.
When I do keynotes in conferences, I get the questions of "are you here to watch your kids while your husband speaks" from the other female keynoter's husband. I get the questions of "you're one of the organizers" when most of the organizers are women. And yet in the same places I get men telling that there is no difference in how we are treated.
Just pick 50% of women of potential into the relevant groups we all want to reach. Those 50% of women are not going to be worse than the men you're selecting now. Those positions help them realize their full potential. And showing this industry is more equal might just help with the beginning of the pipeline too. Because the little girls don't only have a dad who makes sure they get interested in math and STEM, they have a mom who could be more too.
The article I read around getting girls into the industry quotes 23% of women in the industry now. Yet, look at the numbers in relevant business and technical leadership positions. One woman among 5-6 people in the leadership groups isn't 23%. No women as head technical architects is even further from 23%. And don't start telling that there are no women of merit. Of course there are. You might just not pay attention.
In the last week, I've personally been challenged with two things that eat away my focus of being amazing and technical.
First of all, I was dodging a "promotion" into dead end middle management position. How would that ever make me a head technical architect I aspire to be? Yes, women with emotional intelligence make strong managers. But we also make excellent technical leaders.
Second, I was involved in a harrassment getting someone fired case in the community. It has been extremely energy draining even if I was just in a support role.
Maybe having to deal with so much of the extra emotional labor is what makes some people think again less of my merits. And I'm getting tired of it.
We talk of the pipeline problem, on how little girls don't take interest in computers and programming. If they look forward into their role models, they see women fighting for their advancement and mere existence. The pipeline leaks, and almost everyone who is in it is regularly considering exit just to get rid of the attitudes the ones with more privilege don't have to deal with.
How about improving things for the future generations on focusing on the current one so that we can honestly tell our little girls that this is the industry worth going for? It is the industry of the future, and we're not going to leave it, but a little bit of support for the underdogs would be nice.
When I do keynotes in conferences, I get the questions of "are you here to watch your kids while your husband speaks" from the other female keynoter's husband. I get the questions of "you're one of the organizers" when most of the organizers are women. And yet in the same places I get men telling that there is no difference in how we are treated.
Just pick 50% of women of potential into the relevant groups we all want to reach. Those 50% of women are not going to be worse than the men you're selecting now. Those positions help them realize their full potential. And showing this industry is more equal might just help with the beginning of the pipeline too. Because the little girls don't only have a dad who makes sure they get interested in math and STEM, they have a mom who could be more too.
