Being a Woman in Tech.
What is it like to be a woman in the field of technology? We sat down with four women in different areas of the field and at different stages of their career to get their perspectives. We discussed what interests them about their current field, some challenges they have faced, and what they would like to see changed.
DigitalCrafts: Tell me about yourself. How do you introduce yourself?
Stacy: I never dreamed of working in technology. I always wanted to be a teacher, and I did all of my education to be a teacher. I taught for 10 years at a local community college here in Houston and loved every minute of it. The idea of technical writing had always appealed to me, a good way to combine my skills and knowledge as a writer. I started working at cPanel as a technical writer and eventually moved over to QA. Apparently, they think I did such a good job that I’m running the department right now. My official title is QA Manager.
DC: What is your typical day like, does that exist for you?
Stacy: No, it really doesn’t. I get here in the mornings and I have 26 people that report directly to me. Every day I have one or two one-on-one meetings. I also meet regularly with other managers. We get together and talk about how people are doing on their teams. Then I spend about half my day looking at the product of cPanel to see if there is any particular area that we need to fix. So not typical but typical.
DC: How does it feel to be a woman in a male-dominated field?
Stacy: I am a female manager and the documentation manager is female and our departments have the closest balance of female to male ratio. At cPanel we have about 20% women, but my department is about 35% women. The executive assistant manager and the community manager are female. All the other managers, all the executives, the CEO, and the vice presidents are all male.
Women think very differently and I don’t like the idea of communicating like a man, but when I’m in these meeting I have to lay out my point in a different way that I normally would with a bunch of females. So it’s a matter of know your audience and knowing how they’re going to react to information. I think you’re more hyper-aware if you’re a female in a male-dominated space.
I was in a meeting and a guy cut me off and I kept talking, and another guy cut me off and I kept talking. And privately, I took them both aside and I told them, “You interrupted me during that meeting. That was uncalled for. That was unprofessional and I don’t appreciate it.” And they apologized.
DC: Do you have any other techniques for those types of situations?
Stacy: I prefer to listen, you can learn a lot more. There have been times when I’ve tried to say something in a meeting and people will cut me off and ok, they have a valid point and they want to be heard. So I will stop speaking and let them speak. As soon as there is a pause I will jump in and keep my focus on them. You can’t back down and you can’t be meek. Keeping eye contact while they’re talking established that I’m not meek, I will make my point. Go ahead and finish your point and I will respect you, but then you will respect me as well.
DC: Do you have any other advice for women entering male-dominated fields?
Stacy: Make sure your salary is fair. As soon as you know females are making less, that’s a big deal. After that, I hate to sound cliche but be true to who you are. Don’t think you have to act and talk and think like a male in order to keep up with the males. Because you need to be respected as a female. Females act and think and talk differently. And if we are going to get the respect we deserve, we have to do so on our level.
DC: How do you deal with men being inappropriate in the workplace?
Stacy: Honestly, I don’t know what works. I am more comfortable avoiding those types of situations. Letting them know in the moment they have acted inappropriately. But moving on and avoiding the situation and avoiding the person in general. I never took it as oh you’re female, you’re a target. I took it as sometimes the social skills are just not as strong as in other areas of businesses in the world. On that same note, I’ve never felt unsafe. I never felt that a line was crossed. It was just, you’re being inappropriate and I’m going to go away. I’ve always felt safe here, and if I did feel that somebody has crossed a line, that I had outlets such as HR.
I do have several girlfriends here that I will talk things through with and that sort of thing. And that’s another point, make girlfriends. Sometimes women have a tendency to be brutal towards each other, and that’s awful. We have to band together, we have to support each other. We have to encourage each other and we have to lean on each other.
DC: Is there one thing you would like to see changed?
Stacy: I would like to see more females get hired. There’s this approach of letting people get hired based on their merit. Studies have proven repeatedly that this is still biased against women. Sometimes it’s necessary to get a female foot in the door to allow it to open up for everyone else. I don’t want to get anything in this life based on anything other than merit and capability and strength. But sometimes you have to realize that those things are still biased.
DC: Is there anything else you would like to say that we didn’t cover?
Stacy: Thank you for taking the time to put focus on this issue. It’s something that we absolutely have to talk about. We have to put time and effort into making sure that it is known and considered and that we are supporting each other.
To read more, head on over to DigitalCrafts’ blog. Interviews continue with DigitalCrafts’ Instructor, Veronica, and a couple of their female #builders.
