I’m Just A Girl Working In The Tech World
I’m 5’1. 24. I work in tech. “Are you going to scan my badge?” is my least favorite question.
Let me explain. At tradeshows, hundreds of technology companies hire attractive female models to scan visitors’ badges to obtain their information for sales leads purposes. The process goes like this: Man sees Hot Model in tradeshow booth. Man walks into tradeshow booth. Hot Model asks Man with a bright smile, “Can I scan your badge?” Man nods mechanically.
Information is obtained. It should come as no surprise that hardly any man says no to a smiling model. To date, I have never seen a man at a technology tradeshow scan a badge.
Though this practice seems relatively harmless (and somewhat normal in our sex-centric society), it has damaging implications for women who work in the industry. It is unacceptable that I have been asked where my badge scanner is a countless number of times. It is not okay that I have been called “a pretty face” while doing my job.
Unsurprisingly, men who have been in the technology industry for ages are conditioned to see women as aesthetic accessories. How could they not? We’re demanding respect from men at the same time that we’re asking attractive women to assist us at a surface level.
The “sexy scanner” cycle is just the tip of the iceberg to a much larger issue: women are still expected to assist in business in a physical way. Meanwhile, intelligent and educated women are increasingly obtaining executive level positions at the very companies who employ these outdated strategies on the show floor. It’s a giant, confusing paradox; we’re at a professional crossroads where traditional and modern methods are intersecting, and women in tech are having an identity crisis.
Right now, our preferred identity is to act more “like a man.” Emotion is wrong. Attractiveness translates to stupidity. We need to hide these things to feel equal. We need to establish that we are not to be messed with by proving that we’re “different than the status quo” — as if there is a breed of women fit for business and a breed of women unfit for business. We need to earn respect.
Imagine that respect is a 100-meter sprint on a track. In tech, every man gets a five-second head start in the respect race. After five-seconds are allotted, a woman is finally allowed to participate, having no choice but to mad dash to the finish line in a seemingly hopeless attempt to catch up.
Luckily, the industry is changing. We’re moving into a new age where more and more women are entering the field, thus making it more normal to encounter female high-level executives. Soon, Marissa Mayer won’t be a unicorn. There will be hundreds and thousands of Marissa Mayers. But right now, in 2015, the industry is just not there yet and it’s things like sexy booth scanners that keep stereotypes alive.
I wish I could recount every time that in a room full of men, I had to internally talk myself out of rage. I wish that I could list every instance that I had to put my pride aside and let a man embarrass me for the sake of being graceful. I wish I could provide you a snippet of every conversation when a male coworker was addressed and I was not, even though I should’ve been. But that’s not possible.
Right now, it is not my choice whether or not women are used as aesthetic compliments in business strategy, but I do get to choose how I react to it. The subtle sexism fuels me. It drives me. It gives me the incentive to push harder. Everyone I encounter will know that I am a strong, capable woman with innovative ideas.
The only thing we can do — after years of adversity in professional environments and beyond — is to prove just how awesome we are. We need to run so fast that we’re the first to make it to the finish line.
