Good Trouble: Advocating against discrimination in the tech industry
Since it hit our screens on BBC Iplayer, we couldn’t wait to see how Good Trouble presents a Latina woman working in the tech industry- especially following our ‘Women in Design’ webinars. Good Trouble is an American spin-off of The Fosters which follows the working lives of adopted sisters Mariana Adams Foster (Cierra Ramirez) and Callie Adams Foster (Maia Mitchell). The show fruitfully explores issues of gender discrimination,class discrimination, racism, discrimination in the work place, attacks against the LGBTQ community, and body shaming. Isn’t this the programme we’ve all needed? Whether it be purely for the steamy love triangles or an education on these issues, Digital Influx highly recommend everyone binging the show.
While we love everything about Good Trouble, what really caught our eyes was the gender and racial oppression Mariana endures while working at boujee tech startup ‘Speckulate’ as a software engineer. Mariana proves to be an excellent engineer yet is put in an all male team who give her menial tasks purely because of her sex, belittle her skills, make jokes about her, and accuse her of sleeping with the boss when he listens to her app idea. As horrendous as this gender discrimination sounds, sadly it is not uncommon in the real industry and Digital Influx advocate against treating women as any less equal than men, and all workplace bullying. Mariana is also undermined because of her degree at MIT- a school which is lower on the league table than the majority of her colleagues. This issue is seen relentlessly and is so exhausted across various industries, making the show relatable.
Moreover, alongside the attacks against her abilities as a woman and her education, Latina Mariana and Indian co-worker Raj frequently endure racist comments made by their misogynistic teammates. The tech industry is often stereotyped as a male space; how many female engineers are credited for their work? But there are women who are more than capable of working in tech as Mariana proves. So society needs to abolish gender stereotypes to enable women to have equal opportunities in the office as their male colleagues, and ensure that they are not judged or belittled by their sex and how they dress (another issue Mariana experiences). Seeking advice from the company’s only female team leader, Casey (Chloe Wepper) Mariana is told to ditch her style and dress less feminine.
Being the confident, intelligent woman she is, Mariana doesn’t ignore her abuse and creates an all female club ( the Byte Club) with her few female co-workers to discuss the inequalities they face in the work place. One major inequality the Byte Club strive to tackle is the pay gap. As we have discussed in our recent Women in Design Webinars, the pay gap is a major issue across all working industries bar the adult film industry. On average across the globe, men earn 9.3% more than female identifiers. So for Mariana, she is expected to put up with the abuse only to be paid less than her bullies; but she doesn’t let these expectations stop her. Mariana and the Byte club use insider resources to release the wages of the whole company, in danger of losing their jobs. While fighting for equality and doing whatever it takes to secure it, is inspiring on all levels, women should not have to go to such lengths merely to obtain the raises they deserve. This is why we must keep promoting equality in the workplace.
However, in a humbling scene, Mariana doesn’t lose her job and is instead granted the releasing of an amazing app which helps all people who suffer personal discrimination. Additionally, she becomes the ultimate female boss, running her own team. But not every one in the real world are so lucky. So please join us in preventing women from losing their jobs for striving for what they deserve by abolishing gender discrimination in the first place.
In launching her successful app, Mariana proves that women are totally capable of working in tech and as engineers, and that the tech industry being in the male sphere is merely a stereotype. At Digital Influx we ignore gender bias and hire whomever is perfectly right for the job, accepting people of all genders, races, ages and backgrounds. Moreover, Mariana’s app reveals that through UX (user experience) design apps aren’t just about playing games and exposing our daily lives through pictures, but can also be used to help fight against discrimination.
The workplace should be a place of safety and one that promotes equity for all. This is why we recommend that everyone watches Good Trouble as its explorations of societal oppression are extremely inspiring and educational. For information, please join us in our discussions about women working in the design industry during our ‘Women in Design’ webinars and contact us at info@digitalinflux.com for details.
Author: Tilly O’Brien
