“Women dominate the code and you know it!” Vol 1.
An article by Alba Hernández and Estefanía Salgado.
Being a programmer woman has not been a very common reality in the last few years. For different reasons, women as a minority have had to fight in a field led by men. This reality is already changing.
As future female developers, we want to make an approach to others women experience about this occupation. They have very different profile but each one, can give us the key for this sector to be led by women. We want to thanks all the women who have participated and wish this atmosphere.
Nasiba Carrasco- Feminist, Frontend developer, Adalab teacher
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nasibacarrasco/
Question 1: Have you always wanted to be a developer or have you come from another background?
Although she always dreamt of being a doctor, after been studying medicine for three years she discovered it wasn’t her real calling. Thanks to family and friends, she discovered the world of developing.
Question 2: As a developer, what drawbacks do you feel are most challenging in your daily routine?
She doesn’t feel comfortable about being seating for hours and never finding energy to do other activities after work.
Question 3: Have you ever notice any difference with your masculine partners? Regarding your gender, do you remember any situation that made you feel uncomfortable?
Some uncomfortable situations: one of her developer partners always prefered men from others teams to fix code before asking her who worked in the same team. Also being underpaid compared with her male partners.
All these situations are caused by a working background and people who had allowed it and it is because that company is not committed with values of equality.
Question 4: Roughly speaking please, tell us what percentage of developers are women in the companies where you have worked.
She has noticed that the percentage of women in her experience has oscillated between 5% and 50%, and it depends on the project features and who it is led by (for example: a woman).
Beatriz Ruiz Matías- Frontend developer Cabify — 6 years experience in JS.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/beatriz-ruiz-matias-9a420047
Question 1: Have you always wanted to be developer or have you come from another background?
I planned to study computer science since I was in high school, and it wasn’t until the last year of college that I’ve decided to focus on development, and more concretely as a frontend since the last 4 years.
Question 2: As developer, what drawbacks do you feel more challenging in your daily routine?
We live in a world that moves really fast, and that is the higher challenge, that you think you are up to date in the latest technologies, languages… etc but you aren’t. What it is new today, tomorrow it is not, so you have to keep researching and reading about what is new and what is not every day. And that is also really motivating because you are learning something every day.
Question 3: Have you ever notice any difference with your masculine partners? Regarding your gender, do you remember any situation that made you feel uncomfortable?
Unfortunately we still have much to improve as a society in the inclusion of women in sectors that are dominated by men, as is this one. And although I feel that we are all equals, I have found myself in situations in which some men did not share that feeling, making me feel that my opinions did not have the same value. For example, dismissing by default my solutions to problems in which later was proven that that solution was the most accurate, or cases in which only when other colleague (man) suggested that same solution, only then, was integrated in the project. Besides, mansplaining is an everyday issue, although, fortunately, not in my current job.
Question 4: Roughly speaking please, tell us what percentage of developers are women in the companies where you have worked
Although every day we have more women in tech, we are still needing more :) , in my last job we were two women of a team of 20 developers, and in this one we might be 13 of 100, more or less.
Bibiana Murillo-Computer analyst and programmer (SAS, MATLAB, JAVA, C++,PHP,C#) public worker for the state.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bibiana-murillo-38498471
Question 1: Have you always wanted to be developer or have you come from another background?
She always wanted to be an engineer and her teachers always considered developing as a proper future career.
Question 2: As developer, what drawbacks do you feel more challenging in your daily routine?
The client usually doesn’t have a clue what it wants and programmer always have to offer what it thinks the client wants.The time for your projects are very unrealistic.
Question 3: Have you ever notice any difference with your masculine partners? Regarding your gender, do you remember any situation that made you feel uncomfortable?
She asked for a work hours reduction (as males) for being a mother. Big clients always wanted full time availability for they projects and since that, she preferred to do smaller jobs at the office.
Question 4: Roughly speaking please, tell us what percentage of developers are women in the companies where you have worked
She remarks that 25% of the programmers at her company are women in her overall experience.
These are some of the experiences that help us to create an outlook for our future. Each of these women has a different point of view about being a female developer.
They give us some advice to work with clients and different kind of companies and be prepared for different levels of women inclusion. We encourage our readers to visit our second volume of this article to acquire advices through the experience of our appreciated Miriam Pena. She has given us a wide seeing about this world.
