Discovering diversity — my journey in the world of technology

Recently, I have received the Diversity Advocate Award 2021 for demonstrating outstanding efforts to promote and support diversity within the Google Devs community and beyond. You might be thinking that I must be an expert on diversity and I definitely know what it is. Well, I do not. I have been exploring it for a long time now and all I know is that there isn’t a single answer — diversity is abstract, empowering, and a strong notion.

During my childhood, I was a different girl. I used to play video games on PlayStation 3, enjoy programming, do soldering projects with boys rather than sewing with girls, and always had a curiosity for technologies. Growing up in a Post-Soviet country, Lithuania, it was not usual for a girl to be interested in activities considered masculine. However, strict tolerance policies and gender balance in school did not leave room for questioning diversity, and “women in tech” was only a buzzword to me back then.

My journey in understanding diversity began when I started studying at a technical university in the Netherlands. During the very first lecture, I looked around myself and saw a bunch of ‌boys and very few girls in the classroom. Indeed, there were only 18% of females majoring in computer science. Even the faculty advisor encouraged all students to invite girls to study computer science. Numbers would have been just numbers and words just words if it wouldn’t have touched me personally. Being on the minority side, I always had to fight the bias. Every failed exam, unsuccessful assignment, low grade raised doubts about myself, my abilities as a female. Trust me, these thoughts did not encourage a move towards completing the degree, especially seeing the vast majority of male course mates succeeding in the domain. I was failing exam after exam because I simply did not believe in myself.

In the second year of my computer science degree, I applied to become a GDSC lead. I think it was the best decision I have ever made. Firstly, by organising events, talking to people, trying to understand students’ needs, I realised I am not alone. In my university, students do struggle while majoring in computer science regardless of gender. Gathering a core team and being a role model made me understand the importance of empowering women in tech. Overall, the establishment of the GDSC club gave me the faith that I needed to break the gender bias and believe in myself.

Even though I gained substantial confidence in pursuing a career in tech, I wanted to help women who were struggling in computer science, as I did. I started doing so by creating an Instagram account and sharing my technical projects, discussing technologies, and showing that women are not all about beauty product advertisements. To my surprise, I have received tons of messages from women inspired by my stories asking for help and willing to connect. I understood that ‘women in tech’ is not just a buzzword. Instead, it is a noble purpose to fight for the diversity and rights of each woman.

On Instagram, I connected not only with women in tech but also received stories from people who wanted to code but did not even have schools nearby. I realised that diversity is a global concern. To help people jump into technologies and coding all around the world, I became the organiser of a GDSC Global TechFeb 2022. This event was another step towards celebrating diversity in tech, a gathering of GDSC chapters from 27+ universities across 18+ countries. I had a wonderful experience, collaborating with leads from different continents, understanding their mindsets and ideas, and discovering another level of diversity — a global one.

Active exploration of diversity in the tech world really made me understand its true significance and importance. To me, diversity is a global notion bringing peace, freedom, and equality into our lives. It is the freedom to be who we want to be, do what we want, and live the way we want. I am sure that understanding diversity is essential for solving all kinds of problems, from the wage gap between men and women to discrimination against minorities.